Charlton Athletic Community Trust (CACT) ended 2017 in style with a Christmas Dinner that brought service users from all of its strands of work together.
65 service users visited Centre Circle Dining at The Valley on Tuesday 12 December to be treated to a Christmas Dinner and party.
Each strand of CACT’s work was represented, from the Up & At 'Em project, Young Greenwich’s Deaf station, the Walking Football team and many more.
Charlton left-back and England Under 20 captain Jay Dasilva dropped in to sign autographs and dinner was served by CACT’s Executive Team, ITRM Managing Director Dave White, CACT Ambassador Steve Sutherland, CACT Trustee Marilyn Toft and Charlton Athletic Football Club Chief Operating Officer Tony Keohane.
After dinner, Father Christmas arrived to join in the celebrations and hand out presents before everyone enjoyed a performance from singer Rea who attends Young Greenwich and was following up her successful performance at Young Greenwich Day in October.
Joe Peciuch, a member of the much-loved Charlton Upbeats, showed off his DJ skills during a set which brought many to the dancefloor.
Rea was watched by Hildreth Augier, one of the youth workers at Avery Hill youth hub in Eltham, who has been supporting Rea in her passion for performing.
Hildreth said: “We’ve been working hard with Rea to improve her skills and confidence and it’s great to see her talent shining with the opportunities CACT has given her, firstly at Young Greenwich Day, and now at CACT’s Christmas Dinner – her first experiences of public performance.”
For CACT Chief Executive Jason Morgan MBE, the Christmas Dinner was all about bringing people from across the charity together.
“We often celebrate the successful individuals and programmes CACT runs, but today showed the breadth of things we do as a charity”, he said.
“It was great to provide another memorable service for people at the heart of our community.”
Some of the funds raised from the Legends United 25th Anniversary charity game held throughout 2017 were used for the Christmas Dinner, and CACT plans for this to be an annual event.