THE annual Disability Awareness Day event held at Walton Gardens, Warrington, has raised a staggering £1 million for good causes during the past 26 years.
Announcing the amount the charity’s Chief Executive Dave Thompson said: “Not bad considering fundraising is not the main purpose of Disability Awareness Day!”
This year’s event, which included nine events before the big day, attracted an estimated 25,000 visitors, while the charity managed to secure £5,000 match funding on offer from Barclays Bank at the Mega Quiz Night.
At the same time Park Royal Hotel raised £1,000 at a 25th anniversary Ball, while Warrington South MP Faisal Rashid hosted an Evening of Cultural Diversity.
Other highlights included an impromptu moment in the main arena with a marriage proposal.
But Dave’s favourite memory from this year’s DAD was watching seven-year-old Sam, who has severe cerebral palsy “have a go” in the scuba diving pool.
Dave said: “Our friends at Cheshire Scuba Academy were initially worried after Sam shrieked as his dad lowered him into the water, but there were smiles a plenty when his mum confirmed the Sam was expressing his delight.”
The charity also hit new heights on social media, trending second place locally on Twitter after the World Cup….. with 603 Tweets with a reach of over 574,000 and over 1.4 million impressions with the hashtag #DAD2018
On Facebook, 38,000 saw the event, 950 people responded, nearly twice as many as last year. An internationally known personality on YouTube also mentioned Disability Awareness Day, this had the potential to reach out to a further 150,000 people.
Thanking the numerous volunteers and sponsors who helped put on the event Dave concluded: “Overall, I feel it was probably one, if not, the best DAD we have delivered. At times, we appeared “swan fashion”, gliding smoothly on the surface, and paddling like mad below the surface dealing with various matters.”
