A Musical Swing at AFPA Summer Gala Dinner

Our first event of this nature focused on the combination of including Partners and weekend entertainment; a Summer Gala Dinner, was held at the wonderful venue of The Royal Overseas League Club House in St. James. It is a superb elegant historical venue overlooking Green Park and situated between the Ritz and St. James Palace.

The evening commenced with a reception, slightly longer than usual, as we needed time to introduce partners into the equation. This was held in the Hall of India and was followed by dinner and a musical recital in the Princess Alexandra Hall. The recital was a series of songs by Annabel Kennedy accompanied by Emily Ho on the piano, both of whom have recently won acclaim in their respective fields by winning the prestigious musical awards from the ROSL Annual Competition.

The Dinner was created by Irini Tzortzoglou, the 2019 MasterChef Champion and it was much enjoyed and appreciated by everyone. Irini was also kind enough to give us the background story to her success as MasterChef Champion and took some questions, much to the delight of the budding chefs in the audience.

We much appreciated sponsorship from Close Brothers, Lti Solutions, Rivermore Asset Finance and VitrX, for which we thank them for their generous support. Our thanks also go to Adrian Langford who acted as ‘Compare’, photographer and raffle supremo. We held a silent auction of a hand painted Chines Scroll donated by the Soper family, which raised £1000.00 for the charity.  

As it was the first event of this type, AFPA would welcome feedback from those who attended and those who could not make it so you can help us refine our annual event programme. We were more than pleased with the reactions of the Partners who participated; “can we do it again and more of these please” was a popular reaction.

This event was in aid of AFPA chosen charity, the Soldiers, Sailors and Air Force Association (SSAFA). Derek Soper who helped to organise this first weekend Gala dinner for AFPA commented “we are pleased to confirm that £5,000 was raised for SSAFA and they are thrilled to receive this donation.”

For further information about AFPA Trust please visit www.afpatrust.com and for information about SSAFA visit www.ssafa..org.uk