Chairman's Report 2019

Sun, 20 Jan 2019

2019 Joey Dunlop Foundation Chairman’s Report

We are now well into another new year and time to update the Foundations supporters with news on what has happened over the last twelve months. 2018 was another excellent year for the charity in regards to fundraising and operations at Braddan Bridge House however it was a heart-breaking year for many of us after the loss of Dan Kneen, James Cowton, William Dunlop, Bud Jackson and one of the Charities founder members, Barbara Wood. All supported the Foundation for many years and will be sorely missed by everyone at the JDF.

I have to thank my small team for all the hard work they have again put into the Charity, spending many hours fundraising and promoting the facilities we have at Braddan Bridge House. The JDF has travelled to different shows to spread the word on what the Charity does and what Braddan Bridge House has to offer. It is very pleasing to hear that the Joey Dunlop fans who we’ve met appreciate the effort that the Charity does in keeping the memory of the legend Joey Dunlop alive.

Linda Dunlop and the Dunlop family have again supported the Foundation throughout the year and we thank them for again selling our stock of whisky at Joey’s Bar and the highlight of the year being the JDF Black Tie Dinner where they managed to raise a huge amount of money for the Charity. John Harris has also been helping the Foundation and we thank him for all his efforts in securing a place for JDF at several shows in the south of England. We are hoping to come back and do them all again in 2019.

The Isle of Man Steam Packet Company has continued to support the JDF by offering large discounts on our various sailings on and off island. Those who book holidays at BBH using Steam Packet Holidays will still receive discounted sailings so thank you to the Isle of Man Steam Packet Company for their continued support. I must thank Malc Wheeler and Mortons Group who each year welcome Barry into many of their shows and always make sure that JDF is well looked after.

The Charity’s aim is to be the best accessible holiday accommodation available and to do that we are raising funds to constantly improve the building and invest in specialist equipment. In 2018 BBH was awarded Gold in the Tiered Award Scheme and the apartments were busy all summer and well into the Autumn which is great news.

Bookings for 2019 are looking really good so we are looking forward to another busy holiday season. Plans ongoing at the moment are to replace some of the original old doors and windows for new, replace the old cookers and hobs for new ones, landscape and make repairs to the grounds and fences but the most exciting project is the installation of an overhead hoist tracking system to one of the apartments. This new installation will make a huge difference to those that require hoisting from the bed to wet room and will remove the need to manually push a mobile hoist from room to room as the track system will pass through a full height sliding door.

For TT & Festival of Motorcycling the JDF will again be setup at Murray’s Motorcycle Museum at Santon. Peter Murray has supported the Charity for many years and the area he has for us at the museum works perfectly for us. There are many advantages for the JDf to be based here rather than the small marquee which we used to have at the TT Grandstand.

Please keep supporting the Joey Dunlop Foundation and don’t forget to buy your tombola tickets for this years star prize – Suzuki GSXS1000F in Hector Neill Racing colours. See the websites Events Page to get a full list of where JDF will be in 2019.

Thank you,

Bruce Baker