John entertained an audience of over 160 guests with anecdotes from his football career during the 90s, as well as touching on more pertinent discussion points of discrimination and racism in football and what can be done to tackle it.
Guests contributed £3,300 including gift aid towards An Hour for Others charity, whose mission is to unify communities through acts of kindness, offering time, skills, resources and donations to those in need. The generous donation was achieved through two forms of fundraising: a raffle and an auction.
The raffle was for prizes including an Apple watch 3.0 series, an afternoon tea for two at the Hilton Hotel Liverpool City Centre, a £30 voucher for the City Wine Bar, an overnight stay for two at the Castle St Apartments, a lunch for two and a bottle of wine at Fazenda restaurant, a Harvey Nichols beauty set and a champagne and two flute sets.
The charity auction was for a pair of corporate hospitality tickets to a 2019–20 Liverpool FC home game at Anfield Stadium, alongside an overnight stay at the Hilton City Centre and a dinner for two with champagne at a local restaurant, which was won by Penny Pritchard from Rathbones.
CISI Liverpool branch president Louise McEveley, Chartered FCSI said: "It is great for all of our members to come together and celebrate the achievements of the branch each year. We were delighted to welcome Liverpool FC legend, John Barnes, as our after dinner speaker and hear about his career. I have championed diversity and inclusion so it was good to hear John’s talk about how he has dealt with inequality and racism in football and how we need to be aware of the biases we all have in order to change perceptions.
“It was a pleasure to welcome the charity, An Hour for Others, and hear about the great work they are doing within local communities. Their simple message of giving an hour to help others and “together we are strong” really made people think about what they can do to give back. We raised a significant amount for a small charity and this will allow them to support more projects in the community."
Some of the top table guests were: Louise Scholes, chair, Society for Trust & Estate Practitioners; Cllr Christine Bank, Lord Mayor of Liverpool, Labour Councillor for Central Ward; Alex Clarke, senior relationship manager, Professional Liverpool; Chris Topping, Joint Hon Secretary, Liverpool Law Society; Michael Spencer, chair, Merseyside Branch, Chartered Institute of Taxation; Kevin Morland, founder & operations coordinator, An Hour for Others; Mark Blundell DL, Lord-Lieutenant of Merseyside; Susan Sherry, vice chair, Liverpool Branch, Society for Trust & Estate Practitioners; Gill Watkins, finance manager, An Hour for Others.
The sponsors for this event were First Trust, GAM and Natixis, without whom it would not have been possible. If you would like to support future dinners, please contact
nikki.macmillan@cisi.org.
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