Recent events have seen our services personnel once again thrust into the media spotlight. While I'm not writing this to add my own, personal comment to the horrific events in Woolwich it, once again, served to prompt my mind to one of the charities we support - Mission Motorsport - and why we devote a specific coffee to helping them. The link is tenuous, Mission Motorsport is part funded by Help for Heroes, but it highlighted that the risks to the Armed Forces personnel don't always just come at the front line, nor (fortunately) to the gravity of last week's event. There are more simple, basic concerns that face those who leave the employment of the Army, Navy or Air Force... Where next?
There can be no doubt that our armed forces deserve our utmost respect for the work that they do. Just a brief conversation with anyone who has served Queen and Country will graphically demonstrate why people like me are quite happy (and suited) doing what we do in our offices, we're simply not brave enough. During the launch event for our Mission Motorsport coffee I was privileged to meet Jon Earp (pictured - himself a hero, gentleman and, now, a valued friend) and his crew of the Lynx helicopter. Two of the lads looked like they were relatively fresh-faced to serving but, through talking to them, both had seen active service. I doubt I need say more than that. I was humbled.
So why Mission Motorsport? Why dedicate a coffee to them? Well, to cut a long story short I had thought about a specific charitable coffee for a long time. Our ETHYCO range serves to support the Third Sector and gives us the opportunity to meet new charities and worthy causes every week, and we still donate and support local charities. Mission Motorsport attracted me for a number of reasons.
In my personal life I'm a dedicated car enthusiast and on one of the forums I read I'd encountered a chap called Jim Cameron. It transpires that, at the time, Jim was a serving Major in the army but took as many opportunities as possible to use his down-time for writing articles for the motoring press. I enjoyed reading his articles and made contact with him on a number of occasions asking the odd question about some of his adventures and cars he'd driven. When I heard he was preparing for a Tour of Duty in Afghanistan I promised that I'd send out something for him and his lads via BFPS to keep up the morale. In the end we sent out some delicious Deans Shortbread and Jim blessed us with some photos of the lads enjoying their treat - he even emailed me a picture of him slurping a coffee from a Caber mug in Camp Bastion. Brilliant!
At the end of his tour Jim wanted to find an avenue to support the "broken blokes" and Mission Motorsport was founded with the help of Rich Bernard and Sgt Gav Harvey (who was seriously injured in an IED strike) amongst others. In short the mantra is Race. Retrain. Recover. Jim and the team essentially provide injured service personnel with opportunities to find work outside the Armed Forces. The racing and competing is simply the headline act. The real work and satisfaction comes from providing real employment opportunities for those who may otherwise feel their opportunities are limited. The charity has had significant success. As I mentioned before, it's humbling stuff.
I promised I'd do what I could to help and the Mission Motorsport coffee was born. Every case that we sell donates £5.00 to the charity. It is 100% Honduras & Guatemalan Fairtrade Arabica and tastes wonderful. It's superb as an everyday drinking coffee, has proved extremely popular already and we've donated a significant amount of money since we launched the coffee late last year. The launch event itself attracted over 20 fellow car-lovers and their comeptitions cars and made the media! I even made a trip down to Silverstone for the Britcar 24hour race to watch the team compete. They made no sectret of it, their four drivers had six legs between them! The pit crew also consisted of "blokes", many of who now have placements and employment with teams competing in International levels of Motorsport"
So there are many reasons to buy Mission Motorsport coffee. We can sell it by the case or, for those who'd take a long time to go through 50 sachets, we'll even sell them in packs of 10 x 60g bags. Just get in touch with us if you'd like to purchase. We can take card payment over the phone.
Race. Retrain. Recover... and Revive!
