Community Events Ltd.

1. Community Events Ltd. Our Business is your Community.

2. What is Community Events Ltd. Community events Ltd is a new kind of business, it has been set up to enable local community based schools, charities, youth clubs, sports clubs, Scout groups, girl guides or in fact any good cause or organisation that benefits the local community to receive expert and professional assistance to help raise funds. We utilise our extensive contacts and experience to organise fund raising events to help with the need to provide much needed funds to support the excellent and valuable work they do.

3. The History of the Company. I think its important to know and understand some of the history behind the company and why it has been formed and its purpose and aims. On our website will be a fuller and more detailed version of the information on the subjects that this presentation contains. Please go to www.communityeventsltd.comfor this and to find out how we can help you and how you can help us help your local community. In these difficult financial times it is vital that the local community stand up and be counted, we must support the organisations and people who are swimming against the huge tides of both the financial and social issues that they face while working for and within the local community.

4. The Background History. The company is the culmination of a journey and the start of a whole new one. To give you some context of why the company has been formed and what its aims and purpose are, it is important to tell you some personal history of mine that has led me to here today. I am 47 years of age, I come from a working class background and am one of six children. In the years my parents were raising us there was just not the same support or benefits to help them when they needed it, that there are for people who need help or support today. The limited benefits or help available was also something both my mum and dad refused to take, even when they really needed it, the shame of accepting handouts was deeply ingrained in them.

5. Background History (page 2). I have had many conversations with my mum and my dad (when he was alive) over the years regarding the hardships and struggles to bring up a big family in those days in such circumstances. It was quite astounding to hear that they went without food at times because they didn’t have the money to take a sick child to the doctors and eat. They lived through rationing after the 2nd world war, so making do and stretching the budget or the food available to feed the family were lessons already learnt. I remember that my dad had three jobs at one time, he cleaned offices at 6 am, went to his full time day job, he worked for the civil service, then he would do a shift in a local off licence in the evening.

6. Background History (page 3) It took its toll and he was in his thirties when he had a heart attack, he had lost a lung when he was older so after this he always suffered with bad health. This did not stop him continuing to work to feed his family or indeed get involved with volountary work in the local community. We lived in SW london by the time I was about 5, it was and still is a very affluent area, apart from the working class areas, which were almost like two separate worlds, when one of the poorer kids went to join the local scout group or football club the membership was nearly always full, but strangely spaces were always found for the kids from the rich areas. My dad set up a youth club, a scout group and a football club, but these clubs were open to everyone, regardless of colour, religion or status.

7. Over the next twenty odd years the youth club flourished, it saved so many kids from going off the rails, mostly by giving them a place to go and things to do instead of hanging around street corners and the inevitable problems that then ensues. The scout group grew to become one of the countrys largest, it ended up with several scout troops, cub packs, but also included brownies, ranger scouts and several other variations, he also raised the funds to build a brand new building for them. Once again many of the kids that joined were not welcome at other places and well on the way to a troubled youth. The football club that started out with one team ended with over twenty teams in all age groups, the club went on to win trophys time and time again, the Apollo football league he helped to create, went on to become one of the biggest in the country, I believe it still exists today. These ventures all were based around the same principles, to provide avenues for kids of all backgrounds and ages to enjoy the benefits that all the various clubs,groups and organisations bring, and to help instill some of the vital things like discipline and fitness but also the social skills needed to function in society. If a parent was struggling to pay for the subs or a kit or uniform, he would find a way to enable that parent to afford it, without them losing any dignity or pride.

8. My mum is just one of those working class proper mums, the type that lived through the wars and shortages, rationing and all the other hardships by making do, when she first had a family there were no time and labour saving gadgets, six kids born within about 7 years, no such thing as disposable nappies, just towelling ones that needed boiling, when her grandchildren hear the stories of babies being sleeping in drawers with newspaper lining for a cot, no fridges, washing machines, dryers, microwaves, she used to have an open range cooker, the grandchildren just laugh, to them she lived in a cave in dinosaur times. She not only bought her own six kids up but she used to childmind to earn extra money, with up to 4 or 5 extra kids on top, I have five of my own, we have been blessed to have the assistance of all the time and labour saving gadgets and machines we could get and there is still not enough hours in the day. I do not know how they both did it, they undoubtedly suffered health issues that the stresses and struggles bought on. All I know is that my siblings and me were blessed to have two parents that loved us that much, and who sacrificed what ever they had to , just to give us the best start in life they could. I love them and I am proud they were my mum and dad, I was lucky.

9. The reason I have given you the brief family history is that it is key to both the motivation and the reasons that I have founded Community Events. Although at 47 I can look back and see I was lucky to have my parents, I have not always felt that way, one of the main down sides to the work and efforts that my dad put in to feeding us and helping out the local community was that we did not see him much, in fact by the time I had reached the age needed to join the scouts or the football team I already had some behaviour issues. I have always been a fiery and emotional character, (much like my dad), I was also one of those kids that could find mischief and trouble without having to look for it , it just always seemed to find me. I was famous for wanting the last word, never backing down, stubborness on a biblical scale and wore my heart and emotions on my sleeve, I would imagine I was hard work and probably needed a lot of time and attention from my parents but that was not available, the more I played up and got into trouble the more distant I became from my mum and dad and eventually most of my family.

10. My dad was at a loss with me I think, I know now that when we clashed and he said some harsh things both about and to me, he was just frustrated and angry, he never hit us, he would get angry and sometimes say some hurtful things in anger that I know now he regretted and tried to apologise for later, but at such a young age I believed him when he said he wished I had never been born or that I was no good and going to end up dead or inside, I know now he didn’t mean it he was just scared, he was scared that I would end up dead or in prison and he loved me and he didn’t know how to cope with me, and sometimes I pushed him till he did lash out verbally. I remember thinking even at such a young age, you might not like or love me but you wont ignore me, when I was in my teens I used to feel that the pain and anguish that my antics caused was false, i couldn’t understand why they had a go at me, I didn’t feel they had the right as they did not care about me anyway. Now looking back its easy to see that it was the combination of our characters, the circumstances we lived in, and most importantly I was a kid that needed his mum and dad probably more than most, I had a tough, rough, don’t give a damn exterior but Inside I was the opposite, I am still an emotional character now. I left home at the earliest oppurtunity and without going into detail(you will have to read the full version on the website, should you not already be bored with these ramblings that is) by the time I was in my mid twenties I had strayed from a happy or decent path.

11. Looking back it is easy to see that I was in a lot of ways a classic case of how kids can get on to the wrong path, I had no self esteem, I didn’t like myself that much, I had two sons by then and was more like an uncle then a dad. I mixed with some mad, bad, crazy and often dangerous people, I drank too much, took drugs and often got into trouble, I have been shot, stabbed, glassed twice and been in so many scrapes that one day I will write the book I keep threatening. Looking back now though even when I was at my worst, I never got involved in anything that involved robbing or stealing from people, I never sold heroin or crack or took it. I would not hurt anyone who was not trying to either hurt me or one of my family or friends, I was no angel but I wasn’t a bad person in my heart, but when you grow up in a working class tough environment and move in shady circles you learn not to show weakness or fear. Also when you come from that kind of background , you either toughen up or get eaten alive. One of the things that matters most in this environment is respect, it still is, if you listen to the kids from the rough areas today, most of the shootings and stabbings were over some kind of respect or percieved disrespect issue. When you live in the tough working class areas, its your name, your reputation and the respect you are held in or the fear that gives you status and power, this is the only way some of the most troubled kids feel they can get any. Anyway to cut this part a bit shorter its suffice to say I was well on my way to fulfilling that dead or in prison future that had been predicted. I got married at 25 to my 2nd sons mum, she was and still is a great lady, I was damaged goods though, and my marriage failed because of it. I had managed to get to a point where I had worked hard and got some money together and invested it into my own personal dream of owning a sports bar restaurant, at around the same time I met my current partner who changed me and my life for the better and forever. Around the same time I had reached a point in my life where my kids were getting older and I could no longer pretend that they did not know or were beginning how to understand that daddy was not a normal nine to five worker.

12. I ploughed my money into the bar and designed and managed the build(never again) and opened the doors, not long after I suffered a serious spinal injury and this set in chain a series of events that has led to who I am and where I am today. I was bed bound and unable to even walk at first, again cutting a long story short(read the website for more detail) I was put on a couple of heavy duty medications, I had to find someone to run the bar for me while I tried to get well enough to work, in the end a friend agreed to take it over and run it for me and when I was better I would retake it back etc, in the meantime one of the tablets I was subscribed was banned from being sold, after it had caused 1000s of deaths and even more disabling side effects, but not before I had collapsed with heart damage and a lifetime on several other medicines, which have caused several other side effects including Gout, reflux, nausea and many other fun things, I also now suffer from rheumatoid arthritas and two knees that need replacing as well, plus several other health issues such as diabetes and thyroid problems and so on. I eventually lost my business and all the money I had spent years getting together, I had spent every penny and more on trying to keep the business afloat until I got better. I suffered terrible depression caused by my health and with no cure or fix available I struggled to carry on. My self esteem was destroyed, I no longer felt that I had any use and was just a burden on my family. At my lowest ebb a friend of mine died, he was 35 he was a tee total non smoker who was healthy and had a wife and two young children, he was getting headaches and his wife being a nurse made him go to the doctors, from that first GP meeting to him being dead it was about 6 weeks, he had a brain tumour, we had grown up through school and the original 7 of us that hung round together spent some time with him including his wake and to be honest it humbled me, I can not even begin to think what he went through or his family, my brother also lost his son a couple of years ago in a motor cycle accident, again I can not even begin to think how he copes or how he feels. He is one of the people who have inspired me to become the best dad and person I can be, he will get the hump for me saying it, he hates any kind of fuss or attention but its true.

13. I watched the Millys, the organisation that was set up to honour our servicemen and women, and while watching young men that had been terribly injured sometimes losing all 4 limbs , or both legs and an arm etc, these guys were facing up to these life changing injurys with unbelievable heart and courage, watching the guy who lost both legs climb Everest to raise money for help for heroes both inspired me and left me feeling ashamed of my attitude. I went to the job centre and asked for help in retraining, I know that my health would never allow me to get a job, no one is going to employ me, my health issues mean that most days I would not be able to get to work. They literaly told me that there was no point in retraining me as no one would employ me because of my health. They suggested I contact a few charities that might be able to help me. I went to the job centre determined to start the first steps back to me supporting my family , by the time I had left I was devastated and feeling totally useless when I left. I also knew that my partner had given up on her dream to become a teacher because the care that she has to give me at times. On a bad day I cant move, not even to adjust my pillow. I left the relationship as the constant feeling that I was a burden and destroying the dreams of the people I love most was driving me into a deeper and deeper black hole of depression.