Mr Q is taking Darlington FC to the Heart of the Community!

The Darlington FC official mascot Mr Q (Sean Hadland), and his assistant Joanne Cameron, have been extremely busy during the last few weeks with all sorts of fantastic community work and they have well and truly taken DFC to the ‘Heart of the Community’ where it firmly belongs. We thought we’d tell you all about their community experiences and how they have significantly made a difference to local causes and in particular to many, many of those in need this Christmas. It started with an auction…

Mr Q’s online auction initially began with four lots that included a signed Jamie Holmes shirt, signed match ball, a squad signed Walsall v Darlington FA Cup match shirt and a DFC squad signed match day programme from the Walsall v Darlington Emirates FA Cup game last season. In addition, a further signed match ball was auctioned and donated to Wetheriggs Animal Rescue. The income received from the auction was a fantastic £554.60. Further details of the auction winners can be found here

https://darlingtonfc.co.uk/news/mr-qs-online-auction-update

The original idea behind the auction was to boost the GoFundMe for Jamie Holmes’ treatment and rehabilitation but Jamie advised Mr Q that he had received enough funds, and so it was decided to use the proceeds of the auction to benefit several local very good causes this Christmas, which are detailed below. Jamie said, “I was overwhelmed by the support and couldn’t thank everyone enough for helping me to get back on the road to recovery”. 

Daisy from the DFC U9s girls team, with the support from her mum, was running the Daisy Toy and Selection Box Appeal Mission. Daisy is very much ‘one of our own’ and her parents support Darlo. Daisy's efforts have been outstanding, and Mr Q was delighted to play a part in helping Daisy, her family and friends supply over 300 presents to children within the town recently.

Wetheriggs Animal Rescue, close to Barnard Castle, was due to be visited by Mr Q during their Christmas Fair to donate a signed DFC ball as a tombola prize. Sadly, the event was cancelled due to COVID restrictions, so the signed ball was auctioned and raised £50, which was donated to Wetheriggs Animal Rescue. Mr Q recommends fans to visit the Wetheriggs website if they wish to make any further donations. Mr Q is determined to make his visit to Wetheriggs Animal Rescue when COVID restrictions are eased to continue his community work there. You can find out more about Wetheriggs Animal Rescue here

https://www.wetheriggsanimalrescue.co.uk/

AGE UK with the help of Darlington Mayor Chris McEwan and Mr Q, took part in a litter pick during the autumn. Age UK had asked for biscuits and sweets to distribute to a number of people. Mr Q and his assistant happily offered to deliver some biscuits, but dreadful weather cancelled the event, but not to let people down, Mr Q was able to provide a cash donation of £50 to Age UK.

The Salvation Army, another local charity to support, asked for toiletries to go towards their ongoing collection for those in need. Life-long Darlo fan Karen Glencross has donated a large number of toiletry items, many thanks Karen. The Salvation Army is a Christian church and registered charity, working in 131 countries worldwide, that offers support, friendship and practical help to people of all ages, backgrounds and needs. Find out more about them here www.salvationarmy.org.uk.

Family Help, a women’s refuge, is another worthy cause to benefit from Mr Q’s auction. This charity does fantastic work, and you can visit their website here http://familyhelp.org.uk/

Mr Q and his assistant then turned their attention to the Children’s Ward at the Memorial Hospital. Mr Q arranged for a number of Darlo teddies to be delivered to the hospital and just before Christmas Day Mr Q will deliver all the gifts to the hospital door for the Ward Nurse to take them to the children, as COVID has prevented Mr Q from entering the hospital.

At this time of year, the Club would normally host a foodbank collection for Kings Church, Darlington. As this hasn’t been possible, Mr Q and his assistant arranged a GoFundMe virtual bucket collection for 48 hours around the recent FA Trophy game against AFC Telford.

An amazing £300 was raised, after which a further £200 was donated by the Aycliffe 8800 Masonic Lodge. In addition, another £90 was donated to the Kings Church foodbank appeal from another supporter and the Match Sponsor, Sunshine Holidays. All of these proceeds went to the Kings Church food bank fresh produce appeal to fund Christmas Dinners for those most in need at this time of year.  You can read more about Kings Church here https://www.kingschurchdarlington.org/

Further great news, Morrisons kindly offered a discount on fresh produce and Mr Q and his team have now delivered the fresh produce to Kings Church in Darlington. They were joined by Joe Peacock lifelong Darlo fan and  former DFCSG director, who offered help and arranged the transport to move the fresh produce. Joe also presented the cheque on behalf of the Masonic Lodge, Aycliffe Branch 8800 to Mr Q.

Mr Q is also grateful to local butcher T Andrews for offering a great discount on 40 pork joints, after the fresh meat supplier for Kings Church could not deliver due to COVID restrictions.

In all, Kings Church food bank received a cash donation from the GoFundMe and the other donations purchased 100 fresh produce hampers, and 40 Joints of pork. The fresh produce was delivered by Mr Q, Joe Peacock, and Joanne Cameron.

On December 23rd, Mr Q handed over some presents to the staff of the children's ward at Darlington Memorial Hospital

Sean and Joanne would like to extend thanks to all the organisations mentioned in this article. Also special thanks to Scott Andrew for the great discount on the fresh meat and the use of his van, Neil Raper for his help, Joe Peacock for donating back the signed ball he’d won in the auction and Andrew Matthews from DFCSG for managing the finances. Finally, a big thank you to Jamie Holmes for providing some inspiration for the original Mr Q auction.

Darlington Football Club prides itself as being in the ‘Heart of Community’ and many volunteers across the entire Club work tirelessly to build and maintain our fantastic community relationships. The Club would particularly like to thank Sean and Joanne, and others who have supported them, during this brilliant and prolonged community campaign. The Club is proud that the proceeds of Mr Q’s auction and other donations mentioned above, have been distributed to many different and very needy causes and we know that these donations will make a huge difference to a lot of people in our community this Christmas.