Chairman's Report from the 2009 Ball

FROM THE CHAIRMAN

It was an honour and a pleasure to be Chairman of the 2009 Touch of Tartan Ball.  The evening was a tremendous success after a very uncertain economic year for everyone.  The incredible total raised of £113,800 was a superb amount and will go a long way to help in the work of CHILDREN 1^ST here in the North East.  I thank everyone who attended the Ball and all who contributed to the resounding success of the event.

Once again, our special guests and supporters, Laurence and Jackie Llewelyn-Bowen did us proud. Their huge personal contribution to the evening is always highly valued and their additional auction prize this year was a very successful item in the bidding, and was certainly one of the highlights of the night.

All the members of the Touch of Tartan Ball Committee wish to pass on their thanks to our sponsors, large and small.  Without them, we would not succeed in our aim to run this event with such a great result each year.  Our web site acknowledges our supporting companies and individuals and I personally wish to thank them all once more for their contributions.

Our auction raised over £38,000 alone, and we thank those who donated prizes and also those who so generously bid for them.  Other donations, including food items, design expertise, printing, florists, table and tombola gifts and generous amounts of free time all helped us achieve the record total.  We must also thank Malcolm Appleby who as usual stunned us with his Banchory bangles, of which there were three this year, raising a significant amount of money to add to our total.

As the outgoing Chairman, I take this final opportunity to personally thank the hard working Committee members.  It takes many months to put the event together and on the night, it showed that everyone involved did such a superb job.  The room looked fabulous and the programme ran effortlessly to ensure all the guests had a wonderful time.

I now hand over my 2009 role to Joe Mackie, our Chairman for the 2010 Ball.  I wish Joe every success for a great evening on 19th November this year, and know that the support I had this year will be afforded to him without exception.

Andreas Nagel
Chairman of the Ball 2009