2022 Chairman’s Report for Joey Dunlop Foundation .......

Sun, 30 Jan 2022

We are now well into 2022, the Joey Dunlop Foundation had been looking forward to the annual dinner that was scheduled to take place on January 15th at the Palace Hotel. Unfortunately, due to the rather high number of cases of the Omicron coronavirus variant, the committee had to make a difficult decision to cancel the dinner. The Tombola draw, however, did take place and the Charity was thankful to our local TT star Conor Cummins who pulled the winning tickets. The lucky winner, John Avery who lives on-island in Laxey. Trustee Barry Steels, who is based in the UK with the Honda CBR500RA in Joey’s racing colours, will be traveling over on the 5th February to handover the 1st Prize to John. Pictures of this will be posted onto the charity’s website and Facebook page. We will also be unveiling the tombola prizes for 2022.

Although 2021 was another very quiet year for fundraising - due to the fact that there was no road racing at the NW200, Isle of Man TT, Southern 100, Classic TT/MGP or UGP - the Foundation did manage to welcome several holiday visitors to Braddan Bridge House. The Charity continued to receive donations from several supporters who knew that funding would be difficult for us throughout the year due to the many cancelled events. In November last year, Linda Dunlop (and the family) held another fantastic black-tie dinner at the Lodge Hotel, Coleraine. JDF members were pleased to attend, first time back in Ireland for two years. Several thousand pounds were raised from the dinner which has been a big boost for the charity. Always a great event and the support the Dunlop family give is greatly appreciated.

Isle of Man Government Department for Enterprise supported JDF again with their Strategic Capacity Scheme and recently the Foundation has received generous grants from both the Manx Lottery Trust and the Gough Ritchie Charitable Trust. Two items that the grants will assist with are the provision of a replacement mobile hoist, (which arrived this month) and for the acquisition of a new purpose-built store which will enable the Foundation to keep the many specialist aids that are available for guest to use. At present, these items are tucked away in various places at Braddan Bridge House and therefore take up valuable space. Due to the high cost of materials the new store will still require around two thousand pounds to cover the build so the Foundation will setup a fundraising campaign soon.

The Foundation has readied itself for guests who may have an electric vehicle by installing two 22KW 3-Phase chargers. The charity was supported by Manx Solar Energy Ltd, Edmundson Electrical and A&J Builders & Contractors. We have also secured the services of Bits, Bobs & Odd Jobs IOM who has been carrying out various improvements to the apartments in readiness for the 2022 holiday season. Lots of other maintenance works are planned in for the spring so JDF may be putting out an appeal for a few volunteers to do some outdoor floor painting and wood staining!

Thank you for your continued support and we hope to see you during our fundraising events throughout 2022.

Bruce Baker

Chairman: Joey Dunlop Foundation