Waste management firm helps fund football sessions for people with a disability
Albion in the Community (AITC) has been given a £3,500 donation by waste management company Biffa.
Biffa, which is Brighton & Hove Albion’s official waste management contractor, visited the American Express Community Stadium to present a cheque to AITC; the money will now help fund the charity’s football sessions for people with a disability.
AITC is the area’s largest provider of football opportunities for people with a disability and now runs 31 regular sessions, which are attended by upwards of 300 people every fortnight. Its programme includes a growing number of disability-specific sessions alongside the charity’s long-running inclusive sessions which now take place in Brighton, Worthing, Eastbourne, Chichester, Burgess Hill and Horsham.
In the last 12 months alone the charity has also launched a new session for people with autism, a junior amputee session and one for people with Down’s syndrome.
These sessions, however, are expensive to deliver, each costing AITC between £2,500 and £5,000 a year to run – meaning donations like the one received from Biffa are vital.
Mark O’Neill, manager of Biffa’s depot in Burgess Hill, presented AITC with a cheque during a visit to the Amex with driver Ted Page – and the company’s imaginatively named truck Wendy the WasteEater.
He said that having heard about the work AITC does in the local area, the company was keen to help.
Mr O’Neill said: “Supporting AITC is extremely important to us on a number of levels.
“We see it as our opportunity to support a local charity with links to the community that staff and family of Biffa are associated with. We applaud the great work that they do and are pleased to be associated.”
AITC’s Lynsay Josephy was full of praise for Biffa. She said: “As a charity we are always incredibly grateful for any support we receive but this was a particularly generous donation from Biffa.
“The money will help fund our regular sessions and have a genuine impact on people’s lives by helping us continue to provide local people who have a disability with the opportunity to play the sport they love.
“Our thanks go to everyone at Biffa for their fantastic support.”
For more information on how businesses can support AITC’s work, email: fundraising@bhafcfoundation.org.uk.