Suited & Booted Update
There was much joy at Suited & Booted, one of our favourite small charities, on Wednesday 8 December 2021, the day when its founder and Principal, Dr Maria Lenn, was finally invited to Windsor Castle to be invested by the Princess Royal as MBE, the honour having been announced a year ago in the 2021 New Year Honours.
That evening Suited & Booted’s Chairman, Angus Murray, very kindly hosted a small celebratory dinner at Canto Corvino in Spitalfields for Maria and a dozen of her main volunteers and backers. These included long-time supporter Dame Sian Phillips and helper and trustee Mike Thomas of the Actuaries' Company; Tony and Enid Kench were delighted to be included to represent the Bowyers.
Suited & Booted has been ramping back up to full-scale activity in recent months, working evenings and weekends to keep up with demand from the jobseekers they kit out and coach for interviews. They continuously need donations of business attire, particularly at present suits, cufflinks and shoes, so if any Bowyers have items in good condition they can part with, please contact Maria at S&B at www.suitedbootedcentre.org.uk, or let me know and I’ll put you in touch. Their premises are in Blomfield Street, off London Wall.
Currently also urgent is a need for another 2-3 major sponsors to help cover S&B's £60K annual premises costs; the need is critical because the previous main sponsor, an insurance company, has just dropped out. If any Bowyer has any contacts or connections with a commercial entity that could potentially make a five-figure social contribution to help a highly worthwhile business-related City charity, do please say.
At more modest fund-raising level, S&B held its annual Quiz Night on 24 November at the Railway Tavern in Liverpool Street. Ten City teams entered, and for the first time in five years the Bowyers, with a couple of its regulars unavailable, were not the winners: the Actuaries finally beat us! It was however another much enjoyed evening, and we shall of course be back.
Tony Kench
Archived event reports
- A full list of archived event reports is available in the Members' area