March 2013 saw Liverpool Homeless Football Club strengthen their ties with another fantastic local charity: Liverpool Heartbeat. Early in the month LHFC supported a fundraising evening organised by Liverpool Heartbeat in aid of the Sefton Triathalon. As a sign of appreciation founder Robyn Baynes MBE later donated a signed Sky Sports News Shirt from their auction.
Liverpool Heartbeat is a charity that was formed in 2002 by local business man Mr Robin Baynes and in memory of his life long friend and fellow swimming competitor Kenny O’Toole. The aims of this organisation is to promote healthy lifestyles in young people in an educational and entertaining way.
One of the events that Liverpool Heartbeat support annually is the Sefton Triathalon, the UK’s largest community triathlon event. Each year hundreds of tri-athletes, whose ages ranged from 7 to 74 years old, compete in the annual
Sefton Triathlon. Robyn Baynes described the event as “truly inspirational” and he explained that “the event attracts families and young people to participant and help raise funds for charity… The beauty of this event is that the course distance is adapted to suit all abilities. The event attracts over three thousand spectators to cheer the tri-athletes on around the course, making the event all the more memorable.”
This year Liverpool Heartbeat arranged a fundraising event in the Adelphi Hotel. The evening was a great success; there was live music, acrobatic dancing and a charity auction. With generous support from Barclays Bank they were able to raise over £6,000 for the Sefton Triathalon.
LHFC chair John Finnigan, attended the black tie event along with other staff members Stephen Barton, Steve Hawkins and Ben Carpenter (see right). John said; “It’s great to be able to support Robyn and his fantastic charity Liverpool Heartbeat. He is great at supporting healthy activity in our communities (like the Sefton Tri-athalon). Their aims are very similar to our own so it’s why we have chosen to attend and support the event.”
After the event Robyn Baynes MBE decided to gift to Liverpool Homeless Club an auction item that John had made a bid for. It is a signed and framed Sky Sports Shirt. The shirt was presented to the club by Robyn’s son Stephen Baynes at the recent meeting of the Homeless League (see picture above).
Stephen Baynes works at Newstart Homes which is another charity set up by the Baynes’ family and longstanding member of the Liverpool Homeles League. Stephen said; “This shirt is donated to LHFC to thank the club for their support for Liverpool Heartbeat. We hope that Newstart, Liverpool Heartbeat and LHFC will continue to work together bringing sport to our communities”.
