House of Lords reception celebrates Building Brighter Futures Appeal

Lord Low of Dalston hosted a reception at the House of Lords on behalf of The Royal National College for the Blind to celebrate the success of the College’s ambitious Building Brighter Futures Appeal which has enabled the initial phases of an impressive campus development to take place with residential accommodation, extensive new teaching facilities for sport and massage and an assessment centre.

The Archbishop of Canterbury, The Archers actor and former student Ryan Kelly, and captain of the England Blind football squad, David Clarke were among 100 VIPs and guests pledging their support to the next phase of the Appeal, primarily for a centre of excellence for the creative and performing arts for students who are blind or partially sighted.

Vision Charity Executives along with Coraline Ginola were also delighted to attend. Both Coraline and her husband David Ginola who are Patrons of Vision Charity were delighted by Vision’s £10K donation to the RNC Blind Football Academy this year.

Larry Davis, Executive Director of Vision, said "To support such an innovative educational establishment, with staff that really care about the future of their students, is a joy for Vision. We believe sport is fundamental to the development of children and young people. It enhances social skills, builds confidence and promotes team building and goal setting. With these key skills our blind and VI young people stand a better chance to become contributors to society."

Ryan Kelly, who is totally blind, is better known as ‘Jazzer’ from BBC Radio 4 show The Archers. He said of his time at the College, “As I’d always loved drama and being in plays at school I naturally drifted towards the performing arts side of things when I came to RNCB. I loved my three years there and under the close guidance of my teachers, I gained the skills and confidence to try for work as an actor. This led me to a scholarship at the Bristol Old Vic and subsequently a quite scary audition at the BBC. I have been in The Archers now for ten years but I owe so much to the College for giving me the right platform and the self-belief to move on to a successful and fulfilling acting career.” Understandably, Ryan is a staunch supporter of the fundraising efforts to develop the new creative and performing arts centre of excellence.

College Principal, Geoff Draper said, “We have a long standing tradition of introducing our students to creative and performing arts, something many of them have never had the opportunity to try before. We offer an impressive range of programmes in the fields of sound engineering, music technology, radio broadcasting, art and design, performing arts and media. The College launched the world’s first Football Academy for visually impaired players in 2008 and has been very successful in attracting more people with sight loss to the game. We want to roll out this success to other parts of the College, starting with the creation of a Creative and Performing Arts Academy. The next phase of the Building Brighter Futures Appeal is to raise funds to support this exciting initiative.”