LONDON,U.K – Guildford Flames hard man Mark Williams is once again donning the red suit and white beard in his now annual Christmas appeal to hockey fans up and down the country. Williams started an appeal last year in which he asked fans to donate toys/gifts for those children and families in difficult situations such as being in hospital, hospices, social service homes and refuges. Williams raised over 2000 gifts in total and put smiles on hundreds of kids and family’s faces across the South East during last years festive season. Williams is hoping to double that this year, in spite of the `credit crunch`. ” Last year I received around £4000 worth of presents that put a smile on a lot of faces, the presents went to children’s homes, to children who are terminally ill, mothers in a women’s refuge, children who were in hospital on Christmas day and many more needy cases,” Williams said on his facebook site “This year I want to double the amount of people we helped, now I know there is a credit crunch and all that, but let’s not use that as an excuse! We need to collect for all ages from 0-16 Boys and Girls as well as Mums who are in a women’s refuge.”
I asked one of British ice hockey’s bad boys why he felt the need to start and run the appeal “I just had thoughts of how I wasted a Christmas a few years back by spending too much money, as a child I was around a lot of kids who did not have a lot and I thought to myself ‘I would love to be able to give children a boost at Christmas’ as a lot of children in today’s world take it for granted that they are going to get lots of presents,” Williams said “How about the kids who get hardly any thing or the children who may only have one more Christmas? I told friends to not buy me anything just give me a present to a child then I, with Danny Marshall’s (Romford Raiders legend and current club captain) help, took them to a local hospices and homes. If you could have been with me and my friends last Christmas day and you saw the smile on some of the kid’s faces you would have melted.” Williams feels that hockey can do so much more to help in the community and get out to give under privileged kids a chance in life. “Hockey clubs do have to concentrate on getting people through the door, but I know a lot of clubs like Guildford Flames have lots of things going on in the community, hockey fans are mostly great people and have always supported me in all my charity events I hope it just makes people come up with their own ideas. It doesn’t have to cost you money but it all helps,” Williams said “My big thing is my mum and dad have set up a session on the ice for children that have been in trouble with the police, they have an hour training session weekly teaching them hockey and skating this shows them discipline and gives them something to look forward to on a weekly basis. I know that without hockey I would either be dead or in jail now. I work as a lawyer and play hockey I’m sure my parents would agree that I was off the tracks and a different person than now. So I want to help other kids make a change in their life.” Williams appeal isn’t just targeted at Guildford fans though. He has people collecting all over the UK for his appeal and next year he aims to make it more co-ordinated and on a bigger scale. “Next year I am contacting all hockey clubs and I am going to try and get them to arrange their own collections. I know a few clubs are already and a few have started doing it this year. But imagine all the Elite, EPL and ENL teams collecting from all of their fans for their local kid’s charity or social services? That’s a lot of presents and a lot of kids happy,” Williams said For more information on the Mark Williams appeal, please follow the following link to his Facebook group.
http://apps.facebook.com/group.php?gid=20847932056 Contact the author at Pete.lewis@prohockeynews. com
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