emotional week – over a million – we sign our biggest artist yet

as i entered the ice rink the crowd noise was extremely loud, it smelled the same, it sounded the same, “devils”, clap clap clap, “devils”, clap clap clap, the chants were the same.

primal.

and i loved it.

cardiff devils, my club that i had the most successful part of my career playing for, were 40 years old, and i had been invited to celebrate with a long list of players who had pulled on the devils jersey.

a lovely honour considering they had a big pool of players to choose from, so as i climbed the steps to the bar high above the ice, my nerves jangled, especially as i hadn’t see any of the players, apart from a few, for many years, and i wondered how the parkies was going to perform.

as tania and i entered the bar john lawless, the guy that signed me all those years ago came up to us both, and literally broke down in tears, as we hugged, i told myself this is gonna be a long night.

“you changed my life signing me johnny” i said after he had calmed down.

“don’t start me off again smitty, i love you man” he said as he hugged me.

and so it continued, team mate after team mate, steve moria, the cooper brothers, shannon hope, doug mcewan, all part of our double winning team of 1990, and all inextricably linked to my world and life.

we all picked up like it was yesterday that we were the ones stepping out onto the frozen coliseum.

but our time was yesteryear, and i was very conscious of becoming a cliche and part of springsteens song ‘glory days’.

“what are you doing now?” i questioned my former hockey family, and the answers were many and varied, one is an undercover anti terrorism cop, one sells cbd, we all had our story, and it was really interesting listening to everyone’s adventures.

the club had made two shirts with our names and numbers on, one for them to auction for the fans, and one for us to keep, a lovely gesture, and we were introduced at the beginning of the game and had to walk on the ice, and carry out a lap of honour at the end of the game, which was where i questioned my choice of footwear, leather soled chelsea boots were definitely the wrong shoe for this activity.

i shuffled around, safely, and then with wet leather soles i climbed the wet, now very slippery stairs back to the bar.

made it.

the chatter continued, the stories became more embellished, and i looked around the room at the smiling faces, and having been part of the 30th anniversary celebrations a decade ago, i wondered how many of the same would make the 50th anniversary, here’s hoping.

the emotions kept rolling this week, as i met up with curt, our first homeless employee in the bigmoose coffee shop from many years ago, and as we tucked into our pub grub and guinness together, he told me he was really happy, which in turn made me really happy.

he currently works for a company that places homeless people into accommodation and is really enjoying it, and now has aspirations to travel to australia, which sounds very exciting, and we have now arranged to go to climb mount snowdon together, as when he worked with us i took him to climb pen y fan for the first time, and he got enchanted by the hills and beauty of the mountain, and i felt very proud that he wants to make this trip, he is such a lovely guy, and blossoming in life.

like i said pretty emotional.

art4good is growing every week, and we have now signed one of the world’s most famous street artists from new york, who has her work exhibited in the museum of modern art in new york, and in the tate in london.

i’m not going to name her just yet, but she is connected closely to two of the most well known artists in the world, so this project is blowing up, such is the interest.

fricking exciting.

we have also, yesterday, agreed to partner with trekking company ‘evertrek’ who facilitate trekking adventures around the world, and will now open up fundraising opportunities for our community, and being based in caerphilly, they are extremely local, so we are really excited to work with rhys the ceo and his team to expand our horizons.

our campaign to see if we can get project £1 million sold out is gathering momentum, and we currently have 82 bikes full, and only 18 left, so the event is going ahead, and we feel confident it will sell out over the next couple of weeks, so if you have been thinking of joining us, sign up now, to avoid disappointment, you don’t wanna miss the opportunity to be part of the biggest fundraising event in cardiff this year.

my world currently feels somewhat surreal, and i have a trip next week to an opportunity to meet up with some huge investors in mental health at a conference that i will be attending, and i am working with chloe and our team to get our pitch honed, and hopefully attractive to someone in this space, looking for somebody like us, so wish me luck, it’s a huge opportunity.

pressure.

gotta love it.

on a final note, we have just received our draft accounts, and last year we spent more than we’ve ever spent before on therapist costs alone, spending over one million pounds.

yes you read that right.

over one million pounds on our therapist’s invoices.

who would have dreamt that all those years ago, when we first created bigmoose we would have created such a movement, 8561 referrals, 174 lives saved and over a million large spent in a year helping people that are struggling.

crazy huh?

yesterday when i met rhys from evertrek he asked me why and what drives me, and i unexpectedly got extremely emotional, having to fight back the tears, and after breathing deeply to control my ability to even talk i told him, to help people that need help, and ring that bell on the wall in the office that signifies another life saved.

and if you dear blog reader have ever helped us in any way, thank you.

thank you for being on our team.

we are doing an amazing job, but it’s very much the sum of all of it’s parts.

i hope you feel proud, you should.

till next week,

blue skies,

jeff

p.s. massive congratulations to louise on our team who last week ran the lisbon marathon, her first one ever, and after a week of being ill, she completed it, and we’re all so very proud of her, and her strength, tenacity and grit.