In late April, over two consecutive nights, friends of Bath Rugby Foundation, including local businesses, volunteers and supporters gathered to celebrate 18-years of our charity changing the lives of thousands of young people in Bath and the surrounding areas.

Celebrations were held at DoubleTree by Hilton Bath, where we were honoured to welcome more than 200 guests over the two nights to enjoy great food, entertainment, live auctions with 'money can’t buy prizes'; such a meal cooked by David Flatman (Flats) and coaching sessions with Miles Reid and Cameron Redpath, alongside Sam Fender, Womad and England v New Zealand tickets. Perhaps most importantly, we also heard stories from students past and present who have benefited and continue to benefit from the work that Bath Rugby Foundation does.

Lynne Fernquest, Bath Rugby Foundation CEO said, "We are so grateful to all of our sponsors, auction donors, entertainers and guests for their incredible support at the event. Both evenings were enjoyed by everyone in attendance. We are so thankful to for the amazing support in raising funds for our charity. Our incredible Bath Rugby Hitz students stole the hearts of all with their incredible display of newly found confidence and independence; key skills that we strive to instil in all young people that we work with. We are extremely proud of them all".

We couldn’t do the incredible work we do in our community without the continued trust of all who support us. We also couldn’t do the work we do without the generosity of our supporters.

We are proud to say that every one of the children we worked have worked with over the past 18-years is in a better place thanks to the work do. Events like this truly demonstrate to us that our supporters have faith in us as we continue to strive to create a fairer Bath for all children. We wish we could say that the number of children living in poverty was falling, that we didn’t live in one of the most unequal cities in the UK, and parts of our city weren’t in the bottom 1% for children’s services. However, all this is true in this city today, and the economic fallout from the pandemic means times are about to get even tougher.

Tough times don’t and won’t stop us though, they shape us, and fundraising evenings like our 18^th Birthday celebrations showed us just what our wonderful community is made of.

We are thrilled to announce that the auctions, along with the ‘balloon pop’ raffle ran on both nights raised more than £65,000 for our charity. This incredible amount will help us to continue to provide the vital services that we deliver in the local community.

Watch below, our powerful 'Limitless' video that was premiered during our celebratory evenings. It shows how we work with our young people to re-ignite confidence and self-worth and give them the life skills and opportunities to not only survive but to thrive in the world. 

For more information ways you can fundraise for Bath Rugby Foundation, please visit https://www.bathrugbyfoundation.com/fundraising-ideas. 

 Read more about the history of Bath Rugby Foundation