"APTCOO" -- well worth every penny donated, trust me!

At the start of season 2010-2011, I asked Kev if he thought we should try and add a little something to the “On The Road” blog by finding a local charity to support. Kev readily agreed and the format of £0.15 per goal was decided – with any goal-less games to count as £0.50 each. APTCOO was decided upon after our friend Rob Hornby had mentioned the great service they provide for children and their carers.

Last season we managed 109 games, with a goal tally of 393 with 9 goal-less games. That would have raised £126.90 based on the above formula.

Season 2010-2011 saw us make the extra effort, and our total of 154 games was, in all honesty, far more than we had planned. There were 662 goals scored and four goal-less games meaning the total should have been £202.60. Not bad at all.

Chris “Tall-Lad” Dent ( can you guess why his nick-name is tall-lad?) gave us the first “other” donation at the Heanor v Graham St Prims game in September 2010, and after I mentioned this in the match blog entry, interest grew. Throughout the season, we were handed contributions by a variety of friends, old and new, fellow hoppers old and new, and a multitude of others.

One special donation needs a mention : the total at the turn of the year was already at £185, then Alan Avery at Unity FP doubled it – just like that! So we entered the new year with a running total of £370.00 !!

After the poor December when we only managed four games due to the very inclement weather, we really went for it, and as mentioned previously ended up going to 154 games in total, notching up 662 goals.  "Other" contributions in the end, totalled £647.40.....

So, with the total at £850.00, I contacted APTCOO to arrange to present them with a cheque. We were invited to their premises on Saturday 21st May, and were given a very warm welcome by Deb Jones and Megan Wheat.

Deb gave us a tour of the facility and we were duly invited to have a go at drumming – not being very musical, I declined, but Mrs. Kev had a right old bash !!

A photographer from the Chad turned up, and organised a group pic – could have done without me in them though .. I’m not the most photogenic person you’ll ever meet!! Having said that, this hasn’t been about me, or Kev, it’s been about APTCOO and the children and parents who really can say that they have  “A Place To Call Our Own” 

Well, that's it then....the season's done -  we never expected to be handing over such a fantastic amount to APTCOO, but the thought that there were so many people prepared to part with their hard-earned for a charity they had probably never heard of, makes you think that the world isn't such a bad place after all....

Will we do this again next season?  I don't think so ....how the hell can we top this?

One more big THANK YOU to those who donated to the charity

On a more selfish note - ontheroad2010-2011 clocked up 100 hits a day throughout most of the season -- thanks for your continuing interest!!!

See you next season -  "ontheroad2011-2012"