Indian Dinner and Auction, 6th October

Hello everyone!


The team is delighted to say that in just over a week a dinner and auction will be held at school to raise money for Asha. What follows is the official release.


Ballymena Academy to welcome Lord Rana as Guest of Honour at Asha fundraising dinner on Thursday 6^th October 2011

Ballymena Academy is delighted to announce that Lord Rana MBE, Honorary Counsul of India to Northern Ireland will be the Guest of Honour and keynote speaker at a dinner to be held in the school on Thursday 6 October 2011.

The event is to raise funds to support the work of the charity Asha helping children in the slums of Delhi.  Asha’s objective is to transform lives by making healthcare more accessible, empowering people to make changes and improving access to education.  A team of 13 pupils and 3 teachers from Ballymena Academy will be heading out to work with the charity for 10 days at the end of October 2011.

Academy Principal, Mr J R Hassard said “we are privileged that Lord Rana has accepted our invitation to come to Ballymena Academy next month.  Not only does he promote business links between Northern Ireland and India but he is also passionate about education and has set up a charitable trust to create a college in his native village in India.  He is familiar with the work of Asha and we very much look forward to welcoming him to Ballymena Academy.”

The dinner will be the final fundraising event and will include a presentation by team members about their trip, their aspirations and how the funds raised will be used.  An auction of generously donated items will take place conducted by leading auctioneer Mr Richard Bell and Lord Rana will conclude the evening with his keynote address.

Miss Toni Bassett, one of the leaders of the group commented, “the dinner will be the culmination of a very active and successful 6 months of fundraising.  It is hard to believe that in five weeks time the team will actually be in India seeing first hand the uses to which these funds can be put and we are all very excited at the prospect.”

Tickets for the dinner on Thursday 6 October 2011 are priced at £20 each and can be ordered by contacting Hiliary Taylor on 028 2565 2350.

It's set to be an incredible night, and we're all getting really excited about it! The dinner will be a three course Indian feast, and by the looks of things the assembly hall will be completely transformed. However, the highlight of the evening will no doubt be the auction itself, for which we have an incredible range of items. The list is not completely confirmed, however we can tell you about some of our larger prizes.

Five seats in a box for the Ulster VS Leinster match, the weekend of 20-22nd April will be sold off. The prize includes a three course meal and a free bar.

 A shirt signed by some of the Irish Rugby team is also up for sale. (Here's hoping for the world cup!)

Bidding will take place for a football fully signed by Rangers FC. This comes with a certificate of authenticity.

We are also privileged to have two shirts signed by members of the Northern Irish football team.

Finally, we are delighted to announce that we will also be auctioning two signed Manchester United shirts! One shirt is signed by most of the current 2011/2012 squad including Berbatov, Nani and Anderson. The second is a limited edition shirt from the 2010 season, signed by Paul Scholes and Ryan Giggs. Make sure you don't miss out on these amazing items!

As you can see, we've done particularly well with the sports prizes! However the ladies shouldn't be discouraged; there are plenty of lovely treats for them too.

The evening has proved extremely popular and we're nearly sold out of tickets, so if you'd like to attend, please contact Miss Taylor (as above) as soon as possible. If you cannot or do not wish to attend, but still would like to make a bid, we welcome advance bids. If you would like to place an advance bid, please contact Miss Toni Bassett or Miss Catherine Donnelly on the school number: 028 2565 2782.

After the dinner things are likely to be fairly quiet for the team as we rest and prepare for the trip. We'll be updating this blog regularly whilst away, so if you'd like to see how we're getting on, please check back for updates closer to the time.

Thank you.