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A Tee-rific fundraising captain!

We’re always extremely appreciative of those who take the time and effort to fundraise for Sporting Memories - and this has certainly been true of Rushden Golf Club member Andrew Wright, who used his year as the Club’s captain to raise money towards our work.

Andrew has been playing golf for over 50 years, picking up his first set of Golf clubs and taking lessons in his early teens after watching his dad play. Since then, he has been hooked and plays every weekend. His favourite sporting memory was getting his handicap down into single figures in a junior event at Minchinhampton Golf Club in Gloucestershire, aged 17-years-old.

After being a member of Rushden Golf Club in East Northamptonshire for over 20 years, Andrew has spent the past year as the Golf Club’s Captain. In 2024, he got in touch with us to say he had selected Sporting Memories as his charity of the year and will be raising funds across his captaincy.

Andrew chose Sporting Memories as he saw within his own family how dementia and loneliness could impact the lives of loved ones and wanted to choose a charity that supports people to connect to others and share his love of sport. Sporting Memories became the perfect choice to raise funds for.

During the golfing season, Andrew has held a number of events such as a Captain v Vice Captain match, a Charity Golf Day, a Captain’s Away Day in Spalding and a Captain’s Weekend at Belton Woods, Grantham.

Money from these events was raised from match fees, sponsoring holes, hosting an auction, having a tombola at the Rushden Classic Car Event and from anonymous donations. In addition, throughout the year Andrew enforced silly fines for turning up late, a player carrying out something silly or embarrassing or for not wearing a tie and jacket at dinner!

The Captain’s year took a lot of planning and being organised but Andrew loved every minute.

“I have thoroughly enjoyed my year as Captain; I got to play with different golfers that I usually do not play against and it has been an honour and privilege. As well as raising lots of funds, one of the highlights of the year was over 30 people travelling to Grantham for my Captain’s Weekend and it all going to plan!”

Andrew’s Captain’s year has seen him raise £4,124 for Sporting Memories. The money will go towards purchasing new reminiscence resources and physical equipment for our Clubs and care home settings as well as helping to recruit and train new volunteers.

Kelly Hart, our Director of Impact and Fundraising, was delighted that Andrew had shown his support for us through his year as captain: “Andrew has been brilliant and we want to thank him for selecting Sporting Memories as his charity of the year and for his hard work in raising so much money, which is vital for the charity to grow and continue to make a difference to older people’s lives.”

If you would like to pick Sporting Memories as your charity of the year or fundraise for us, please do get in touch to chat about. Please call 0759 2639056 or email fundraising@sportingmemories.uk