Convenience Retailer of the Year 2022 Singh’s Premier in Sheffield has just handed over a cheque to Sheffield Hospitals Charity for £18,200. The impressive amount was raised via the retailer’s annual charity football match held at Sheffield United Football Club’s (SUFC’s) Bramall Lane Stadium and is the most the Singhs have ever raised within the space of a week.
The Singhs’ first charity football event at The Blades’ stadium took place back in 2012 after Mandeep Singh, who runs three Singh’s Premier stores in Sheffield with twin brothers Vrinder and Baljeet (aka Bal), was “cheeky” enough to ask SUFC operations director Dave McCarthy for use of the pitch.
Since then, the family have been running an annual charity football event at the venue, sometimes involving multiple matches with both adult and junior teams, with all funds raised going to charity.
Covid meant that they were forced to take a break, but this year saw the event’s welcome return. However, there was one major caveat. In previous years, Mandeep explains that they have had much more time to prepare (around a month), but this time round they were only given a week’s notice when a prized slot at Bramall Lane was available. “They squeeze in charity games when they can,” he explains. “We had less than a week to organise everything as they gave us the go ahead [to use the pitch] at the last minute.”
With match day fast-approaching, Mandeep and the team channelled all their energy into making sure they were ready for kick off. “We couldn’t do a multi team event - it was too high a risk,” explains Mandeep. Instead, they opted to keep it as simple as possible and hold a single game with Punjab Kings - a team they founded a year ago at Sheffield’s Shri Guru Gobind Singh Ji Gurdwara Sikh temple - and Sunday League side Sheffield Lions.
They made up a poster publicising the match and got straight to work posting it to their army of social media followers (their Facebook page alone has 29,500 followers!) “We put on our social media that the match was going ahead and people that came to the store could then donate into charity boxes,” says Mandeep.
“The players also donated and then we got the game sponsored and asked them for donations too,” he says. Nearby Totley pharmacy, three property companies, and even rival businesses including a Go Local Extra retailer, all generously helped with donations, as did Mandeep’s retail partners Zeus Labs, Booker and Premier.
He claims that if you raise enough awareness of an event then you’ll often find that there are plenty of people wanting to get involved. “A lot of people do fundraising but they don’t shout about it, so nobody really knows what they’re doing,” he says. “If people don’t know about it, they won’t donate or buy into it.”
In the days running up to the game, Mandeep was jumping through hoops to ensure that any health and safety concerns were addressed. “There were a lot of legalities behind it, we had to make sure that we were ticking every box,” he says. “There’s security you’ve got to look at, and you’ve got to have a medical team available in case anyone gets hurt.”
Organising the players was another vital part of the equation. “There’s a lot of stuff behind the scenes,” he says. ”We had a WhatsApp group to make sure everyone was playing and that everyone was on time,” he says. “You’ve also got to invest in kits and a trophy too. ”
The match took place in May with Vrinder, Bal and his son JJ, and Mandeep’s sons Harman and Pav all kitted out in the Punjab Kings’ fierce orange attire and ready to take on the mighty Sheffield Lions. Both teams fought hard and the final score was 5-1 to the Punjab Kings.
It was an impressive victory for the Singhs-led players, but Mandeep was celebrating a far bigger win, having raised thousands of pounds for charity, thanks to the incredible number of donations that had poured in. “To raise over £18,000 in one football game is unreal,” he says. “Who would have thought that when our parents bought that first store that their kids would be raising this kind of money, working with a professional football team and playing there? We feel blessed that everyone has helped us along the way and we don’t forget that.”
One person in particular who has been extremely supportive is former chief executive of Booker Group Charles Wilson CBE, who has not only donated money, but more importantly - his time. “He is very, very, very, very supportive always and very close to our family,” enthuses Mandeep. “He is actually my mentor. In life, you need somebody to guide you and look up to and since I’ve known Charles, there’s nobody else that’s guided me better and in such a nice way. We always have catch ups and he energises me into doing the right thing. He’s a super guy.”
Now Mandeep wants to inspire other retailers to perform good deeds by connecting with their communities. “This year was phenomenal - the game was phenomenal, the people involved were phenomenal, and the amount that was raised was phenomenal,” he says.
“It’s not about the number though, it’s about doing it and then getting other people involved - motivating others from doing good yourself.
“We want other shopkeepers to get motivated into working with their communities. If every store raised £100 a month for a charity, we’d be in the millions! It’s just about getting everyone together and understanding that doing the right thing makes a difference.”
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