A Celebration To Remember.
Gordon Moody’s 50th Anniversary celebration brought together old friends, new friends and collaborators to celebrate 50 years of the organisation founded by the Rev Gordon Moody.
Like many events and celebrations this year, we weren’t sure if we’d be able to make an in-person event happen in a Covid world. It is with a warm heart we’re able to share the event’s success. The event’s success stems from our wonderful suppliers, who believed in our cultural vision to unite and excite people around a topic that is, more often than not, hidden. In addition to our suppliers, we owe a huge thanks to our wonderful outreach teams for bringing together ex-service users and their families for the day and to new staffers who joined us for the very first time in person!
The day was both a celebration and a reflection of the past, present and future of Gordon Moody as an organisation that continues to grow in order to meet the treatment needs of those most severely affected by gambling-related harm; it was a therapeutic approach to reflect on the charity’s impact over the past half a century, to be inspired by those who have been through our gambling addiction residential rehabilitation programmes and to re-energise our teams positively and proactively to continue to deliver the best level of care as we open new residential treatment centres for gambling addiction and counselling support for gambling harm in 2022.
Video Coverage
The team from Glace Media captured the day on film, allowing those who couldn’t attend to re-live the day at home. All of the videos of the day featuring CEO Matthew Hickey, Personal friend of Gordon Moody, Adam Tamburini, BetProtect co-founder and affected other Adam Bradford, Mark and Liam from WhysUp and of course, the fantastic Gordon Moody team panels spanning past, present and future exploring the growth of the organisation, what happens behind the scenes and many personal stories as a reminder that there is life beyond addiction and that there are people with lived experience to tell the tale.
Our sound and stage equipment were provided by Ace PA, who were very generous with their time and were more than happy to be in on the surprise of the day – a rap from current Dudley residents to celebrate Gordon Moody. Our Gordon Moody Diary Room was provided by People’s Voice Media and we will be sharing those stories shared later this year as part of our 50 stories celebrating 50 years of Gordon Moody.
As an organisation that is so rich in history, it’s so important for us to capture and share these moments to spread the word of the fantastic work we do here at Gordon Moody, reach those who may need our expertise and support and preserve history for the next 50 years of the organisation.
Photography
Francis Augusto and George Devereux captured photographs on the day featuring emotions, reactions and the catching up of old friends. Both photographers have lived experience in supporting vulnerable people and documented the day in a personable way, adding a real sense of humanity to their documentation. These photographs are our gift to those who attended and reflect the range of emotions the event evoked. We hope you cherish them as much as we do. You can view the photos over on our Facebook page.
Food
We couldn’t possibly do a roundup of our 50th without a mention of the sensational spread provided by Lady Platterley and her wonderful team. Kate was wonderful to work with, and the pictures speak for themselves; the food was delicious, the display dramatic, and 100 bellies filled full. It’s safe to say the food was a big success.
Finally,
It’s not very often so many different elements of a charity come together all in one place at the same time, let alone in a covid restricted world. We hope those who attended found the day insightful, fun and friendly, and we aim to share that sentiment through our online event coverage because every charity is a team, and within that team are individuals with purpose, pride and a promise to do their very best to support those affected by gambling-related harm.