The annual orgy of beer swilling, fancy dresses and laddish antics which has become synonymous with the Hong Kong Rugby Sevens doesn’t immediately spring to mind when charity is mentioned. So it was interesting to hear about the “Mission Possible" box and the great work they were doing over in the corner somewhere down towards the dreaded South Stand. And why not – after all, probably less than five per cent of the population has any interest in rugby or the Sevens. The rest of the community just knows that Causeway Bay will be blocked solid and taxis scarcer than hens’ teeth for a week in late March every year. Wan Chai and Lan Kwai Fong will be heaving with an invasion of gweilos and you can’t get on a flight and every hotel jacks up rates. Yes, it’s about time this privileged bunch stepped up and raised some money for the rest of Hong Kong. And that’s what they did.
HKRFU donate box
So how do you turn a Sevens box with 76 seats into a lot of money? The chap behind all this, Peter Bennett, is understandably reticent to blow his own trumpet, but the retired JP Morgan banker and corporate financier should be an inspiration to all wealthy people who have enough money already, and have access to people who can help them raise some more for good causes.
We’re all pretty jaded with typical overblown Hong Kong charity functions staged in posh hotels where the costs of the event and the marketing eat up a major chunk of what the charity finally receives.
The chat on the terraces was that Peter Bennett had deliberately not done it this way, because he wanted all the money donated and raised to go direct to the four local charities, which are, in no particular order, the Foodlink Foundation, which distributes unwanted restaurant and hotel food to those who need it. Then there was the Lighthouse Foundation, which helps injured construction workers, the Community Chest Rainbow Programme and the Po Leung Kuk’s Special Children Development Fund.