A Successful Day

Mental health event draws crowd and raises funds.

by Mark Harding

The Lift Industry Mental Health Charter Cup was held on 20 May — during Mental Health Awareness Week — and turned out to be a successful football event supporting mental health at the Dartford Football Club. The event raised approximately £6,000 in person, and donations were still coming in at press time, with organizers hoping to raise £8,000 in total to support mental courses within the vertical-transportation industry and highlight mental health. Approximately 250 people from the industry and their families attended the event throughout the course of the day. 

With the funds raised at the event and other initiatives, the Lift Industry Mental Health Charter has arranged and paid for two courses in mental health first aid – one in September and one in October. The September one is based in London and open to all supporters of the charter. The October one is in the Midlands, capturing people across the country. This course will create 20 more mental health first aiders in our industry with a mix of office staff and engineers.

The Group Stages

There were 20 teams taking part with four five-a-side pitches, each playing a mini league format at 14 min per match. There were some great games with more than 200 goals scored. Special thanks to Richard Wood and Steve Kitteridge for helping out on the day and compiling the stats:

• 41 games played including the final
• 222 goals scored (nearly 5.5 goals per game)
• League A goals scored: 49
• League B goals scored: 41
• League C goals scored: 84
• League D goals scored: 45
• Final goals scored: 3
• Two games with 12 goals (one being 11-1)
• Jack Kleen won the golden boot with 12 goals.

The Four League Winners

Four teams won their respective leagues and played in a hotly contested final. The winning league winners were CTA, Jackson Lifts, Safeline and Target Lifts. Some of these teams were made up from multiple companies within the industry, creating teams for the final in the Dartford Stadium.

The Final

In total, nine companies took part in the Lift Industry Mental Health Charter Cup final. On one side was Cibes, Titan, Apex (CTA) and Jackson Lifts, playing as one team in the final. On the other side was Target Lifts and Safeline, with the Safeline team made up of members from Intelligent Lifts, Flex Lifts and Temple Lifts all playing as one team.

It was truly a unique final where companies within the industry came together, with CTA/Jackson Lifts coming out on top and winning 2-1 in the final.

Event Stands

The event also had various stands highlighting mental health with different items. This included a well-being stand and a mental health stand, with Petrain services providing metal health support information and useful cards which can be used to contact support services. Thanks to Petra Northwood for turning up early and helping to set this stand up.

The well-being stand had essential oils, Indian head massage, reflexology and Reiki, with thanks to Patsy Charles for providing the essential oils and Anne Stuart for providing the Indian head massage and Reiki. A cake stand raised monies for mental health, with thanks to Emily Still from EZE Lifts and Elle from Robert Gerrard. 

Local suppliers also participated with Toolbank showcasing tools and WJ King highlighting vans.

Sponsors

The event also saw support from a number of sponsors:

• Dewhurst (Principle Sponsor): Provided support on the day and helped to highlight mental health within the industry. Dewhurst also supplied the lanyards for the medals and various banners.
• BLDN Clothing: Supplied bibs for the matches when needed, something event organizers hope to use again in further events.
• Deltron Lifts: Supplied goalie gloves to every team on the day
• Safeline: Supplied shin pads to the players who needed them
• Andy Gino/Fujitec: Supplied the match day balls and the match day officials
• PEW: Designed the match day programme and producing the programmes on the day. The match day programme highlighted all the teams who took part and described the format. It also highlighted the sponsors. 
• Our Mental Health Matters: We would like to thanks Martin McCarthy for helping to secure Dartford Football Club as an event venue and sponsoring the cup for the final. We would also like to thank Martin for helping with the raffle and the great prizes.