SHOOSMITHS’ FAMILY FUN DAY RAISES THOUSANDS FOR MUSTARD TREE

The Manchester office of law firm Shoosmiths has raised thousands of pounds for a city charity which aims to combat poverty and homelessness.

A family fun day organised by the firm, which included a charity football match against TV soap stars, raised nearly £3,700 of funding for Mustard Tree.

Jet2 Allstars, who are made up of soap stars past and present, faced off against Shoosmiths’ lawyers and representatives from the charity in the special match, which was hosted at Monton AFC, alongside face painting, raffles, and food stalls.

The Jet2All Stars line-up on the day featured stars from Coronation Street, Hollyoaks and Emmerdale alongside celebrity friends, and included Alan Halsall, Nick Culkin, Nick Pickard, Jay Kontzle, Rhodri Giggs, Rishi Nair, Chris Perry Metcalf and Ashley Taylor Dawson.

Meanwhile, the Shoosmiths' Superstars team were proud to welcome Bader Ayed, who was a professional footballer in Kuwait before arriving in the UK in January 2022 where he was seeking asylum.

Bader is currently enrolled on Mustard Tree’s “Freedom Project”, training in the coffee shop for two days a week and is undertaking computer confidence and ESOL (English lessons) and aspires to become a football coach in Manchester. 

The Jet2AllStars won the match by 5 to 2 and were awarded with the Shoosmiths' Community Cup.

Mustard Tree, who have been Shoosmiths’ designated office charity for the last year, works to create opportunities for people to help themselves through providing practical support, friendship, connections into work, improvements to health and wellbeing plus new experiences to encourage aspiration. Recently, the demand for services provided by Mustard Tree has reached an unprecedented level - each month they are seeing footfall of almost 10,000 people.

Robert Nieri, charity lawyer for Shoosmiths said:

Quote

 

“The fun day was a great success, not just in terms of the numbers who turned up from the local community, or for the money raised for Mustard Tree, but because it epitomised the Shoosmiths’ approach of working together – not only within the firm, but with our clients, contacts, charity partner and the wider community - to make a positive impact. 

"We are hopeful that the inaugural Shoosmiths' Community Cup can become an annual fixture in the Manchester sporting calendar."

 

Jo Walby, CEO of Mustard Tree said:

Quote

“We are so thrilled with the support from the Shoosmiths team, and it was great to see everyone coming together for a family fun day out. Thank you to everyone involved in this incredible event. Next time we hope to leave as the winning team with the Community Cup!”

Anyone who would like to support the work of Mustard Tree can join the High Fivers here