This year’s very well attended 19th Charity Ball at London’s Lancaster Hotel raised a substantial sum of money for a good cause as usual.

 

Several hundred guests packed into the ballroom at London’s Lancaster Hotel where they were wined, dined and entertained at sponsored tables. This was followed by the more serious business of awards and a major auction run by David Spillane and Barry Geoghegan which steered the evening into the early hours of Saturday.

 

This year’s nominated charity was the very worthy ABC Trust founded by Buckley Jewellery owner Adrian Buckley.

 

Prior to the grand auction there were several interactive games to keep the audience involved both in the ballroom and the foyer entrance. These included a dance off, a raffle, a lucky dip, a shooting game (no live ammunition) and other activities before DFNI announced its awards. These saw Qatar Duty Free walk off with the Travel Retailer of the Year Award, followed by Dubai Duty Free for best new shop at Dubai International Airport; and P&O Ferries and Korean Air for best ferry and airline operations respectively.

 

Survey participants also voted Changi Airport – and The Changi Airport Group – as the most supportive airport authority in the business.

 

CREDIT WHERE IT IS DUE

DFNI’s team, led by Publisher Amanda Felix and Editor Gary Scattergood should be commended for their hard work to make last Friday’s (April 11) charitable event work and TRBusiness was very happy to support it – as we have in the past. As usual, the black tie event took place in a very friendly atmosphere, with the DFNI Global awards run side-by-side with the money raising and the whole affair culminating in a grand auction.

 

The chief and worthy beneficiary charity chosen by DFNI this year was The Adrian Buckley Charitable Trust set up in 2012 to help those less fortunate than others. Its first project in Uganda was completed in February 2013.

 

 

The Charitable Trust is based around the Kyasira Home of Hope, which is a Ugandan orphanage (shown above) located off the Entebbe Road between Kampala and Entebbe. It caters for destitute street children with about 45 living there at present.

 

All welfare and most health and education in Uganda is provided by religious and faith groups on a charitable basis. The Kyasira Home of Hope is run by four Religious Sisters from the Order of the Good Samaritan, whose mission is to care for the most needy. They refer to the children as their ‘sons’ and ‘daughters’ and provide a loving environment for them.

 

The Adrian Buckley Charitable Trust has so far funded and constructed an entirely new orphanage out of nothing with the sole intention of improving the quality of life for the children that reside at the Kyasira Home of Hope. DFNI’s 2013 event – which TRBusiness also supported – raised a very worthy £85,000 for the London Supply Group Foundation to build a nursery school in the Primero de Mayo neighbourhood in Puerto Iguazú – Doug Newhouse.