Kevin Sinfield MBE and Ryan Sidebottom lit up a room of over 350 guests in the long bar at Emerald Headingley Stadium on Tuesday night as special guest speakers at Leeds Rhinos Foundation’s annual fundraising dinner.
The two Headingley icons, who are also vice presidents of the charity, spoke to BBC journalist Tanya Arnold on stage about their memories of Headingley, career highlights and passion for Leeds Rhinos Foundation’s work in the Leeds community.
The room also heard from Chairman of Leeds Rhinos Foundation Phil Caplan along with staff members from the charity who spoke about the different work delivered across the city in health, disability, education and women’s sport.
Continuing the memory theme on the night, singer Lizzie Jones performed a rendition of Memory from the stage show ‘Cats’ accompanied by a montage of footage of the history of Leeds and the stadium at Headingley.
The dinner brought together supporters of the charity from different public spheres including the Lord Mayor of Leeds Cllr Jayne Dowson and Leader of Leeds City Council Judith Blake as well as many businesses and organisations including Mears, Caddick Construction, Emerald and Chadwick Lawrence Law firm.
With International Women’s Day on the 8th March, the charity also spoke about new enterprises launched over the past 12 months which have been created to provide more opportunities for women and girls to participate in more sport including Northern Ballet, Leeds Rhinos Netball and a new Leeds Rhinos Women’s team.
The audience also included members of the Leeds Rhinos first team, including Captain Kallum Watkins and fellow England international Ryan Hall along with charity trustee Jamie Jones-Buchanan who all provided auction and raffle items on the night in support of the charity.
Speaking on the night Ryan Sidebottom said:
“The Leeds Rhinos Foundation does such amazing work and to be part of that like everybody has spoken about tonight, raises awareness and gets people taking up sport regardless of background and whether you end up following sport or playing sport, it does great things.
“For me to be involved tonight is really humbling, I’m really proud to be part of the Foundation as a Vice President and long may its success and night’s like this continue.”
Chief Operating Officer for Leeds Rhinos Foundation Bob Bowman said that the continued support of the Leeds community was in full view at the dinner:
"I am delighted with how the fundraising memory dinner went on Tuesday 6th March, the night was a wonderful occasion to see in excess of 300 people coming together to support us and the work that we do in the Leeds community.
"I have to say specific thanks to all the sponsors, donors, friends and supporters of the Leeds Rhinos Foundation who turned out in their numbers, dug deep into their pockets and raised in excess of £25,000 for the charity.
"This level of support means we can continue the highly influential work in the city of Leeds, which allows people greater opportunities to be the best they can be, many thanks to everybody who cam along and I hope to see them all again the next time we have such an event."