The London Press Club is joining forces with the NPF, The Journalists’ Charity, to revive the annual press ball this summer.
Carol Vorderman has agreed to host the evening and Nick Bonham will be the auctioneer for the ‘money can’t buy’
auction
at the midsummer ball at the Natural History Museum, London, on
Thursday 7 July. Both are giving their services free for the ball in
aid of the NPF.
The press ball lapsed four years ago when the
events company that ran it got into financial difficulties. More than
1,000 people attended the last one in Battersea Park in 2000.
Traditionally the ball was a major fund-raiser for the NPF as well as
being a high profile event attended by newspaper proprietors and
editors and their teams along with journalists from across the media.
In
November the London Press Club board decided to approach the NPF
trustees about reviving the ball as part of a five-year plan to
revitalise their activities, concentrating on key events in the
journalistic calendar.
“Our aim is both to raise the profile of
the LPC in the media and to present the NPF with a substantial cheque
afterwards. All the profits will go to the charity,” said LPC chairman
Donald Trelford.
Camelot, the first sponsor to come on board,
will host a champagne reception at the start of the evening. The ball
is also being backed with sponsorship from the main newspaper groups.
Pledges
have already been received from the Telegraph Group, Independent
Newspapers, Associated Newspapers and News International and others are
in the pipeline.
The NPF is mounting a major fundraising campaign
this year to rebuild its care home in Dorking, opened by HM The Queen
Mother in 1969, and badly in need of updating. Since then the home has
provided care and accommodation to a wide cross section of retired
journalists and their dependents.
NPF chairman Nick Jones plans
to broaden the membership to include journalists working across the
media in television, radio, magazines and the internet.
Former
BBC political correspondent Jones is the brother of Daily Telegraph
political editor George Jones. Their father, former Wolverhampton
Express & Star editor Clem Jones, who died two years ago, lived at
Sandy Cross for the last eight years of his life.
“My father was
very happy and settled there. It’s a unique community of former
journalists,” said Jones. For more information about the ball please
contact Entire Affair on 020 8429 7520 or by email at
LPC@entireaffair.com
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