17th March 2010

Happy St Patrick’s Day to all Astra owners and fans, Vauxhall lovers and obviously everyone else out there with a bit of Irish blood (or even attitude) in them.

Today I was hoping to post about a charity that is close to my heart, thanks mainly to my family upbringing as an ‘Army kid’  and that’s Help for Heroes.

My father was an officer in the Royal Irish Rangers for most of his professional life and therefore the whole of my childhood, and even though I didn’t follow his career path professionally, as a young man I believed passionately that I should provide some service to the country by doing a stint in the TA with the Honourable Artillery Company. Added to this, my sister did a number of years in the OTC as well, so you could say we really do have army blood coursing through our veins.

Highlighting aspects of my upbringing and background should help to define why I’m so proud, proud that Vauxhall have dedicated their corporate resources to becoming one of the official partners of Help for Heroes. I need to be very careful when writing about a large and successful corporation’s involvement with a charity; as Jay Leno says, ‘Hollywood celebs (or at least their publicists) never tire of telling anybody who will listen about all the anonymous good work that they do on behalf of charity’. That to me sums it up pretty accurately. There’s always the danger that writing about it appears both self-serving and cynical (possibly leading to people questioning the company’s motives) or, right over at the other side of the spectrum, overtly schmaltzy and saccharine.

I’m obviously no Shakespeare, so through sheer lack of talent if nothing else, will avoid emotionally manipulating those of you reading this post. And, knowing Vauxhall’s long history and affiliation of working closely with the military (from specific car offers for service personnel, to vehicle testing at Millbrook and the like), I’m in a position to vouch for their bone fides in working with Help for Heroes and their genuine desire to raise considerable monies for our extraordinarily brave men and women of the Armed Forces who have been injured during their tours of duty.

If you don’t know much about Help for Heroes, please do check out their website, but suffice to say, thanks to the dedication and passion of Bryn and Emma Parry in founding the charity in the first place and the support and fundraising activities of many around the UK, millions of pounds have been donated to improving the life and wellbeing of returning injured servicemen and women. The conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan are taking their toll. But Help for Heroes is strictly non-political, non-critical and non-judgemental. As they declare, they can’t stop or prevent soldiers from being wounded, but if everyone pitches in, we can help provide the services so necessary to helping them get better or at least aid their recovery. As I can testify to, these are ordinary people doing extraordinary things and then often having to live with the consequences of their service for life. If that doesn’t make them heroes, then what does?

And the great testimony to the success of the charity is that the money being raised is getting spent quickly, and ending up in the hands of those that need it when they actually need it. There’s no beaureacracy or red tape holding up the distribution of funds. This is invaluable in continuing the momentum of support and providing help when its desperately needed most.

If the Vauxhall community would like to get involved, then please do. There are numerous ways of helping out, from starting your own fundraising initiative or sponsoring others. Please checkout the website to see how you can help. Vauxhall staff are in the early stages of development of their fundraising events, as are the Vauxhall dealerships and those events that they put on at a more local level. Next month should see the ramping up of money generating activity and I’ll let you know what type of events are being planned.

So far, the VXR owners and community have the opportunity of taking part in the upcoming VXR power events, some of which can be viewed as potential sponsorship opportunities (see the previous Rollercoaster challenge post). Miss England, Katrina Hodge, herself an active service women, will hope to attend a few of the VXR Power events and help with the Help for Heroes fundraising. I know I’ll be out doing my bit as well (although I doubt I’ll be looking to emulate Eddie Izzard’s recent feat of mammoth endurance money raising that he put in for Sport Relief. And no ‘I dare you to’ please!).