“I believe very strongly that it must be in a company's interest to invest in local communities because business is affected by so many social factors: crime, vandalism,antisocial behaviour, education, transport, environment”

Henry Bellingham,
MP, Shadow Minister for Economic Affairs

Croydon Charity Ball 2010
Croydon Commitment Trust has been named the sole beneficiary of the Croydon Charity Ball this year at Selhurst Park Stadium, home to Crystal Palace Football Club. Sponsors of the event are Barclays Corporate and Simply Lunch with Mondial Assistance, a founder partner of Croydon Commitment, as reception sponsor.

The Croydon Charity Ball is fast becoming the annual charity fund raiser for the borough and a popular choice on the social calendar, when all ages and gender of totty shake their all on the dance floor of the infamous Marquee on the Pitch, in Selhurst Park Stadium. This year, Croydon Commitment Trust is the sole beneficiary of the charity ball which is on 18th May and is attracting a 700 strong audience, and the money raised from the event will be donated to the Trust, to maximise all opportunities for reaching the target of £330,000 by March 2011.

The trust fund is set up by Croydon Commitment to benefit people and charities in the local borough, so every penny donated to the Trust really will be giving something back to the community. This year, the fantastically popular comedian Jo Brand has very kindly agreed to entertain guests at the Ball and PayBack will be entertaining the guests with their heady mixture of funky dance numbers once the evening has kicked off.

We welcome your support at the event, and tables are £750 plus VAT and can be purchased by calling 020 8768 6049.

Hot and Sticky in Hell's Kitchen
January is traditionally a month lacking activity but if had you visited Chef's Restaurant in Croydon College last week, you would have been pleasantly surprised by Croydon Chef's Charity Challenge Final, a fund raiser organised Croydon Commitment and based on the popular TV programme Hell's Kitchen starring Gordon Ramsay and Marco Pierre White. The format involved 2 local companies, one being Mansell plc, a 100 year old construction company with its Head Office based in Croydon, pitched against Chequers, a local Croydon family-run cleaning company and the remit was to prepare and cook a 3 course meal for a restaurant full of invited guests that same evening. Mansell Construction and Chequers had both won previous heats against Custom Group and Mott MacDonald (respectively) and 27th January was the final when both teams sweated it out in the kitchen all day to see who would win.

The bleak month of January was the host of the final held in the Croydon College student training restaurant called Chef's which is open to the public on a daily basis. The event was generously sponsored by Simply Lunch and the wanna-be chefs produced a feast of culinary delights showing the skills and talents of two local chefs associated with Croydon College, Gemma Hammond and Joe Sullivan. They had both developed the menu for the two teams to work from, and Gemma led the Mansell team and Joe led the Chequers team.

Gemma's menu was Thai based and included an exquisite starter of prawn and potato fritters followed by Beef Rendang and Malaysian fruit salad and won huge accolades from the panel of judges, including Matt Knowles from the Croydon Guardian, Cathie Johnstone from Catherine Johnstone Recruitment and Terry Page, the sponsor of the evening. Joe's team cooked a wonderful Morrocan lamb and a delicious chocolate and cardamon tart which caused quite a stir in the restaurant and needless to say, with that sumptuous chocolate tart it was Joe's menu that won the final victory ! Chequers were announced the winners ! Croydon Commitment, the organisers of the event, were over the moon with the success of the evening, and our thanks go to everyone who took part especially the teams of Chequers and Mansell, and the chefs Gemma and Joe, who worked tirelessly behind the scenes to make the evening a success. The evening raised over  £1200 on the night towards the Trust fund set up, and we hope to stage the event again in the autumn.

Croydon 100 Challenge kicked off to a good start this year, when 7 teams from various companies started their quest to raise the most money in 6 weeks! Those teams involved who battled against each other over the 6 week period included the Croydon Guardian, DMC Business Machines, Lexis Nexis with 2 teams, Mott Mac

Donald with 2 teams and the Pension Protection Fund with one team. There have been some excellent ideas for fundraising during the 6 weeks and here is a selection below. DMC employees, friends and partners participated in a charity fundraising event at the Indus restaurant in Banstead on Monday 6th July 2009. All the guests enjoyed the evening, an all-you-can-eat curry night courtesy of the Indus restaurant and its owner Mr Shah and a raffle was held in which the star prize was a 32inch LCD TV and the event raised over £2000!Lexis Nexis ‘Finance Finest’ held a dress down day at work costing £1 per person. The C100C Team had to wear ‘funky’ t-shirts and set up a voting system for staff to nominate the person they thought was the best dressed to win a prize! The other Lexis Nexis team called LN Ladies put on a quiz and auction night at the Glamorgan pub in Croydon, and held an email bingo game, plus two very successful cake sales. PPF held a weekly bonus ball & a charity football match plus a finale event of an Auction of Promises. Mott MacDonald Team B raised £500 from holding a football tournament and have also had a raffle and a Quiz Night at Tiger Tiger, loved by all Mott MacDonald staff ! Finally, Mott MacDonald team

The Wild Bores, sold bacon butties one Friday morning outside their building and raised £250 (kindly donated by Fatboys Ltd) and raised thousands of pounds from a charity abseil outside their building. This made them the winners of the competition, on a staggering £7,554 and it was a marvellous effort on the part of the team ! The competition raised over £16,000 and we are extremely appreciative of everyone’s efforts. The winning prize was a meal for all 6 of them at Albert’s Table in Croydon and all the other teams received a bottle of champagne in view of their fantastic efforts during the competition.

THE WINNERS BOARD
Newsquest £300
MottMac Team B £800
LexisNexis Finance Finest £1,082
LexisNexis Ladies £1,283
PPF £1,524
DMC Business Machines £3,600
Mott Mac Wild Bores £7,554
TOTAL RAISED £16,143

Thursday 16th July saw the BRIT School put on FESTIVA, a concert performed by their students at Fairfield Halls in aid of Croydon Commitment Trust.

The evening saw a combined show by the musical theatre students and those from the music department. The concert was a fabulous mixture of music, dance and song from the students and included classic pieces from the musical Barnum as well as Mozart melodies (pictured) all the way through to a series of 1990s hits penned by Madonna, Oasis and Santana (pictured). The songs performed weren’t all number one hits but there was something for everyone’s taste and there were plenty of toes being tapped in appreciation ! Over 400 people turned out to watch the show, a good result in these recession-led times.

It was a stunning performance by the students and showcased the wonderful talent nurtured by the School and the teachers, and one that Croydon should be immensely proud of. We are extremely pleased the BRIT School agreed to perform the concert and we thank Nick Williams, the staff and all the students who took part on the night. We hope this becomes an annual charity event at the Fairfield.

The Venetian Masked Ball on 31st January 2008 was a charity fundraiser organised by Croydon Commitment in the sumptuous surroundings of the Great Hall at Addington Palace.

For more information and to view some pictures of the event please CLICK HERE.

Croydon Commitment is a registered Charity. Registration number: 1122878.