Evo-Stik Northern Premier League Marine announces that it has collected an amazing 5,000 items of football kit for KitAid, a charity that helps underprivileged children and adults in over 30 countries across the world. The campaign by Marine, led by their Community Officer Barry Lenton has exceeded all expectations. Supported by BBC Radio Merseyside over 2,000 kit items were collected by February and this figure has been dwarfed by so many people donating unwanted kit throughout Merseyside and beyond to reach the 5,000 milestone last week.

Derrick Williams MBE, Founder of KitAid, said

“We are absolutely amazed and delighted that Barry Lenton and Marine have managed to top the 5,000 figure for items collected through this campaign. This is enough to kit out nearly 400 teams across Africa, and every shirt will bring a massive smile to someone who loves football but can only dream of owning their own kit.
Well done to Barry who has been a real inspiration to all of us."

Marine Chairman Paul Leary said:

“This really is an amazing achievement by our football club and demonstrates what we can do when we put our minds to it. It has been a great community exercise that has caught the imagination and support of so many people across Merseyside. This has been a great cause to be involved in and we are so pleased that we shall give so much enjoyment to thousands of adults and children around the world who will have a football kit for the first time in their lives.”

Marine Community officer Barry Lenton added:

“Getting BBC Radio Merseyside on board was a tremendous boost to our appeal. I collected 2,368 items of kit from their studios in the three months that Marine has been helping Kit Aid. Many of these have been from Liverpool and Everton supporters but kit has been handed in to Marine from many schools across Merseyside such as De La Salle in Croxteth, Christ The King in Southport, Birkdale High School and St. Luke’s, Frodsham. One Crosby primary school (Forefield Juniors) has handed in 203 kit items. Collectively, schools across Merseyside have donated nearly 1,200 items.
Boys’ and girls’ football clubs have also made substantial donations, including 160 by Princes Villa near Ellesmere Port and, locally, Crosby Stuart. Fitwell Sports Shop in the south of the city donated over 100 kit items and we even had a donation of kit from Waterloo Rugby Club.

Organisations such as the Criminal Records Bureau in the city centre, the Inland Revenue in Bootle and One Vision Housing in Netherton who are responsible for 10,000 council properties in south Sefton have made donations. Inks (UK) International from Rochdale donated posters and Swift Despatch, a courier firm from Huyton, has been picking up vanload after vanload from my house, storing the kit and then taking it down to Hatfield in Hertfordshire without charge. Liverpool and Everton both put articles in their programmes (v. Stoke and Fulham, respectively) and magazines which helped enormously. Sally’s Your LocalJournal gave us a two-page spread that went out to 10,000 homes locally and the Crosby Herald and Champions newspaper also gave us excellent publicity.

I have also had many donations from individuals. Perhaps the one that stands out was from a Mrs. Moss whose son, Christopher, had died (aged 39) and left 40 Everton shirts and shorts. She was only too happy to donate them knowing that they would be passed on directly to those who needed them. Another special donor was David Sheekey from Ormskirk who, after donating seven boxes of brand new pairs of boots, declared that he and his wife would name their bar in Kampala, Uganda “The Marine”. St. Peter’s Church in Heswall took a full set of kit and boots directly to a village in Uganda in February and sent me a photograph of the kids wearing the strip, which was very rewarding.

Altogether, 2,336 shirts have been handed in (representing over 100 different clubs), 1,276 shorts, 545 pairs of socks, 318 pairs of boots and 527 other items, including a bag of referee’s kit with flags, whistle and yellow and red cards. A brown and white striped shirt, a green pair of earrings, two blue pleated skirts and a few T shirts with Benidorm printed on didn’t count towards the total!
Kit Aid has not only helped to further enhance the reputation of Marine as a community club but it has also united Merseyside with a common cause. We hope to help with the charity for many years to come. This time next year we could well have pushed our total to 10,000”

Photo - De La Salle in Croxteth presenting 108 kits collected to Barry Lenton