Thursday, 03 December 2009

Mercedes-Benz of Swindon raise 'lots' for Help 4 Heroes

A Swindon auction featuring some much sought-after sporting memorabilia raised literally ‘lots and lots’ for the Help 4 Heroes campaign.

More than £16,000 was generated by the event, which was held at The Wiltshire Golf & Country Club in Wootton Bassett and attended by 174 guests – eager to capture a souvenir and support such a worthy cause.

Whilst a weekend break for two at the Berkeley Hotel in London provoked the highest bid of the night - £1,300 – there was plenty of interest in the sporting items too. Part of recently-crowned Formula One world champion Jenson Button’s car – signed by the British race ace – raised £800, a four-ball on the championship course at Wentworth fetched £750 and a bid of £550 claimed a Real Madrid shirt autographed by World Footballer of the Year, Cristiano Ronaldo.

There was a host of footballing souvenirs up-for-grabs too, which were collected during a 24-hour tour of every Premiership club. It was undertaken by a trio of personnel from the nearby RAF base at Lyneham – Corporals Johnny Carberry-Rogers and Gareth Owens and Flight Lieutenant Ben Hanson – and David Harries, General Manager at Mercedes-Benz of Swindon, which provided a vehicle for the 1,200-mile trip.

As part of its involvement in the Help 4 Heroes fund-raiser, the Drakes Way retailer also helped with ticket sales for the auction and arranged one of the guest speakers, England football legend Stuart Pearce. The current manager of the nation’s under 21 team, who is also a Mercedes-Benz of Swindon customer, donated a signed England football shirt which boosted the total by a further £600.

As well as listening to Stuart’s soccer tales, guests at the auction were also given an insight on the work of the military charity by former Army Major David Bradley, who survived after being hit by a rocket propelled grenade in Iraq.

“We have doubled the amount of money that we had hoped to raise so we are all absolutely ecstatic,” said Corporal Owens. “The generosity of everyone involved has been incredible – from the various organisations that donated items for the auction to the invaluable support of David Harries and the team at Mercedes-Benz of Swindon and, of course, the people who attended and made it such a memorable evening.

“Everything went so well that Johnny, Ben and I have already spoken about the possibility of undertaking another fund-raiser for Help 4 Heroes in the second-half of next year.”

Photo - Celebrating the auction's success are (left to right): Corporal Johnny Carberry-Rogers, Corporal Gareth Owens, Stuart Pearce, event organiser Cathy Caulfield, David Harries and Flight Lieutenant Ben Hanson.