Boomerang Race Night

On Friday 16th of September, recent guests at Dens Park, Boomerang, held a race night in aid of the Madison Barclay appeal.  Included in the night was a raffle, where the main prize was the signed Dundee shirt donated by the club.

Neil Ellis of Boomerang was a busy man, helping with the bar, making sure the stovies were ready, while trying to make sure everything went well, but had time to share a few words.  "This event has been planned for some time, but when we received the signed merchandise at Dens, we thought we had an opportunity to raise even more with some great raffle prizes.  The raffle itself raised a large part of the money raised, which looks like going into four figures, that’s a fantastic amount, and everyone at Boomerang would like to once more thank the Dundee FC Supporters' Society and Dundee FC for the shirt and ball."

The shirt was won by a regular at Boomerang, Sally Low, but that was just the beginning of its fundraising, as Sally explained.  "While the shirt is great, I am not really a fan of football, and as the event is all about raising money for charity, I decided to auction it off, and let someone who really wanted the shirt to have it."  Despite it being the end of the night, and a night where a lot of money had already found its way from wallets and purses into the charity funds, another £50 was added to the fund, when that man Neil was the winning bidder.

First Neil gave it to Sally, then Sally gave it back.... for a price.

Neil was still undecided by the end of the night, either the shirt will stay at Boomerang, or may be raffled again.  "I am a big Dundee fan, and Carlyn who works with me is too, and having the top in the office would be great, but if the opportunity arises where we feel we can raise more cash, then we will have to see what happens."

Carlyn and her sister were two of the volunteers who spent the day selling tickets at the recent Fresher’s Fair, both are season ticket holders at Dens, although her role on Friday night (left) was somewhat less glamorous!  Neil forgot to mention some other details, last week Boomerang finalised a deal which sees them sponsor Richard Horsburgh for the season, Richard is the squad member who paid for the honour at the Hall of Fame Dinner, as well as an advert to run in the matchday programme.

To see the benefits of the DFCSS initiative which saw Boomerang come to Dens was great, as community Director Jacqui Robertson noted.  "Since Boomerang came to Dens as part of our health initiatives our relationship continues to get stronger with Boomerang linking in with the football club as well as their own volunteers giving up their time to volunteer for us too.  For me this shows how working together can provide positive connections on both sides of the fence.  The Society look forward to continuing to forge links with Boomerang and the many others we will be working with over the season."