Bear Grylls to champion Norfolk charity at game
Norfolk-based charity Care for Children is teaming up with TV adventurer Bear Grylls and Norwich City FC to promote its vital work with orphans in Asia, during Saturday’s Premier League match with Chelsea. Keith Morris reports.
On Saturday January 21 a group of eight, leading online and mobile marketing entrepreneurs are travelling from Seattle, USA, to spearhead a unique approach to fundraising by sponsoring the Premier League Live Sky TV match between Norwich City v Chelsea at Carrow Road.
Their aim is to raise awareness and funds for Care for Children – a young and pioneering Norfolk based charity that operates in Asia to help move orphans out of institutions and into local families.
The campaign is championed by Bear Grylls, the adventure-mad Briton who is the star of TV shows ‘Man vs. Wild’ and ‘Born Survivor’.
Grylls, 36, began his climb to fame in 1998, when he entered the Guinness Book of Records as the youngest Briton to conquer Everest, just two years after breaking his back parachuting. His show, called Born Survivor in Britain, features Grylls dropping into inhospitable places and showing viewers how to make it on their own in the wild. Stunts have included free-climbing waterfalls, wrestling alligators and using the corpse of a sheep as a sleeping bag.
Bear Grylls will front the charity campaign in Norwich by giving an exclusive video message on Care for Children’s website and in the match day programme.
It is estimated that this match alone will reach a global audience of 830 million, with the majority of viewers being Asian.
Care for Children founder and executive director, Rob Glover, made the connection with Bear because both are heavily involved in promoting the Christian Alpha Course and Nicky Lee from the Alpha Marriage Course will be attending the match in Norwich.
There are opportunities to support Care for Children either at the game or on its website at:
www.careforchildren.com
Care for Children has a “vision for a million children” in Asia. Since 1998, by working in partnership with the Chinese government, they have already helped place 250,000-orphaned Chinese children back into Chinese families in China.
Norwich-based Thomas Abbott, from the charity, said: "We are now poised to replicate our successful project work in new Asian countries including Thailand, North Korea, India, Vietnam, Mongolia and Cambodia.
“We are aiming to partner with local and international companies to link them to this amazing cause through this great event to ultimately make a big difference in so many disadvantaged children lives.”