Leeds United (H) - A Tribute to Theo John Manning

[James]

Please read, share and contribute, if you can.

Thank you

https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/football-united-a-tribute-to-theo-john-manning/backers#start

 

 

[Silvio Dante]

James - I’m in no way doubting your intentions are good here. But I can’t help think that a £6500 target here for a tribute at the Leeds game is a bit off here.

I’ve got a friend who suffered from the tragedy of the loss of a child. He’s active in Sands locally, and the £6500 going to a charity that do fantastic work in this field will do more long term benefit to families that have suffered from the same tragedy as Liam and Fran than any one off tribute at a game will do. It’ll be an emotive day in every way and I have no doubt the fans will show their support for Liam in this time, but I’m not sure a display against monies to Sands is really the way to go.

Said in support of intent and understanding the motives. Possible that you were intending small amount for display and rest to Sands, and if you could clarify that it’d be great as the funder doesn’t indicate that currently - I’m in no doubt if you did you’d smash the target and you have my best wishes in doing so.

[James]

double post*

Edited 5 hours ago by James

[James]

1 hour ago, Silvio Dante said:

James - I’m in no way doubting your intentions are good here. But I can’t help think that a £6500 target here for a tribute at the Leeds game is a bit off here.

I’ve got a friend who suffered from the tragedy of the loss of a child. He’s active in Sands locally, and the £6500 going to a charity that do fantastic work in this field will do more long term benefit to families that have suffered from the same tragedy as Liam and Fran than any one off tribute at a game will do. It’ll be an emotive day in every way and I have no doubt the fans will show their support for Liam in this time, but I’m not sure a display against monies to Sands is really the way to go.

Said in support of intent and understanding the motives. Possible that you were intending small amount for display and rest to Sands, and if you could clarify that it’d be great as the funder doesn’t indicate that currently - I’m in no doubt if you did you’d smash the target and you have my best wishes in doing so.

Hi Silvio,

Genuinely, I really appreciate the comment and I completely understand your question/points. And I can assure you that they have all been considered on a number of levels, both by myself personally, as well as with those whom there has been ongoing dialogue since the the sad news about Theo was shared.

I'm also (un)fortunate enough (though not sure that either Permutation is correct ) to have a close friend and colleague who is heavily involved with Sands both on a local/national basis. And whom (along with various persons involved both directly and indirectly with the club) I've spent a great deal of time with over the last few days (a particularly poignant time, as it of course has also been Sands' "baby loss awareness week") to ensure that any display of support for the Manning Family is done so both in the right tone (as of course, from all angles, the intention is good). And with wider benefits (again, I'm not convinced that is the right word either, but hopefully you know what I mean!) absolutely in mind. IE. the raising of awareness for support charities - such as Sands, through this tragedy. For clarity, the reason I haven't stated a specific charity in the link, is because I'm not personally aware of the circumstances surrounding Theo's untimely passing, so didn't want to speculate as to the specifics of the most appropriate benefactors of any additional funds raised.

To quantify the potential costs, the scale of display which we would like to facilitate, would encompass the entire Dolman and South Stands. with materials costing circa £4500 (just under 13,000 seats across the 2 stands). With delivery costs (unfortunately exacerbated by the short timeframe we have to work with) coming in at just over £1,500. The crowdfunding site takes a % too (2.4% + 20p (per pledge) + VAT on UK/EU cards*) hence the target figure of £6.5k. Which is absolutely an enormous sum of money, but for context, works out at approx. 50pence 'per seat', across those 2 stands. (which on a seperate note is significantly cheaper "per person" through scalability than the majority of the displays we've conducted in S25/6 over the past few years.)

The outpouring of love and support for our head coach and his family/loved ones has been overwhelming. And I'm certain that every single one of us would do anything we possibly could to provide any sort of relief to Liam and his family. Absolutely a natural response to such news, particularly of someone/a family that we would of course feel a personal affinity towards on some level. So the questions that I suppose have been asked from within are, what can we, as fans of Bristol City do on a local level, with one of the answers from our perspective being, (if successful) a demonstration of our love and support in person, as a collective next weekend. And as we (as Section 82) demonstrate our support for our team and our club through visual displays this plan was formed (along with other fan led organisations) from that thought process.

With that all in mind, we felt it was important on this occasion to make it completely clear as to what the tone/intention of the display would be, keeping all funds raised completely seperate to our other cumulative funds and therefore give people complete autonomy on whether they would prefer to donate through these means (if at all) or directly to a charitable organisation, which of course could be said for all of peoples non essential spending habits day to day. As, you are absolutely right that if the target amount is raised, that would be a valuable contribution to any charitable cause. And of course the same could be said for any/all monies raised by us over the years. But hopefully our combined efforts as a fan base will also prove a valuable message of support both directly to Liam and his family, as well as through the raising of awareness to such tragedy's that befall people everyday. But whilst reminding us all of the strength that comes from supporting one another in times of sorrow.

For all the right reasons, I don't really want to get in to a 'debate' on it (not that i'm suggesting that you do!!!), however I hope my reply makes sense and answers the questions you have asked. And as I said at the start, I completely appreciate your point/question.

That being said, if you would like to discuss anything further, I'd be more than happy to do so, but would prefer to do so in private (happy to have a call/meet for a coffee if so, drop me a dm) rather than through a public forum. As tone/intent can of course be more difficult to read/interpret in written form. And i don't think for a second there is any ill/insensitive intent from you. And I know their certainly isn't from me.

James

Edited 5 hours ago by James