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Aston Villa. It’s The Everything. The Things That Make Me Proud & What I Believe The New Owners Will Do To Increase That Pride

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And then there is our Aston Villa Foundation. Guy Rippon and his staff have done a stunning job transforming this from a small, unheard of part of Aston Villa to a very special and impressive setup. You can read about it here: https://www.avfc.co.uk/club/foundation. I’ve had first-hand experience of these fine folks, as I’ve tried to champion what they do as much as possible. It’s crucial in my opinion and is something that the (now) much maligned Keith Wyness pushed to establish.

I was also able to get my brain ache addled body to do a marathon (a ridiculous idea I must admit after the fact!) to fundraise for them. https://astonvilla.vitalfootball.co.uk/a-marathon-for-the-av-foundation-supporting-our-own/ I was able to raise £2,060.00 with the generosity of you fine folks and also a nice donation from Keith Wyness. Xia wouldn’t even re-tweet let along donate. Says it all to me that.

And so onto the new guys. This is the detail I drilled down on quite quickly when they were first linked, it’s one thing to earn as much money as they have, that’s massively impressive and anyone able to do that gets my full respect, but it’s another thing totally how people choose to use the wealth they have created. That’s the mark of true character I believe and both of these guys have character and substance in bucket loads. That bodes well doesn’t it? Especially for our foundation but also for the character of the people we now have running us.

Nassef Sawiris. No point me repeating the information that is already there, the links will take you to the Sawiris Foundation: http://sawirisfoundation.org/#projects-programs It is a massive, successful and very worthy foundation. I’m told by Vital member Rev Pete (he’s a reverend and his name is Pete, would you believe!) that it is a very well respected set up and that it does hugely beneficial things. Also a little on the Wikipedia page.

And Wes Edens? Well, if you wait a minute, I’ll tell you!

Just a quick search brings up: https://eu.jsonline.com/story/news/2017/07/19/milwaukee-bucks-foundation-gives-1-million-15-community-groups/489011001/ So another fantastically funded Foundation doing great work.

I’ve been reliably told that Wes and the other Bucks owners formally created the Bucks foundation so I’m sure they’ll love the Aston Villa Foundation just as much.

I’ve also found this one, The Edens Professorship in Global Health: https://www.macalester.edu/news/2011/10/wesley-and-lynn-edens-establish-endowed-professorship-in-global-health/

Oh and just as an aside, Milwaukee has a similar industrial background to Birmingham, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milwaukee, which should help when it comes to understanding the culture of us Midlanders (and yes, I know Villa isn’t just followed by Midlanders, we are a worldwide known club and soon we’ll be forcing ourselves back on the map even more! Oh and that area brews a lot of beer and I know we ‘all’ have a similar background in liking brew! 😉

And the thing that makes me the most proud? Us fans. Simple. Without us, there is no Aston Villa.

So what brings you the pride? Join in the debate in the forum…

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