Thanks to Simes for posting the following news on our Transformers Forum regarding the Auto Assembly charity event.

As usual, Auto Assembly 2008 is holding one of it's now traditional charity auctions to raise money for it's nominated charity, Help A Local Child, and this year we're hoping that it will be our best yet!

Help a Local Child was launched in 1994 with a commitment to helping the children and young people of the West Midlands, who experience the negative effects of poverty, abuse, neglect, homelessness, violence, crime, illness and disability. There are many children in and around the Birmingham area who are carers for their own parents or who are indirect victims of domestic violence or suffer daily pain due to illness. In this world of glamour and gain, these are the children that BRMB want to help. Their focus is local fundraising, with all money raised being awarded locally and really benefiting our community. With the help and support of their listeners, local celebrities, corporate partners, volunteers, and their employees, the fundraising year on year will help more and more children in the area, enabling them to achieve dreams and ambitions they would never have thought possible.

Last time we managed to raise just over £1,000 (almost $2,000) for our nominated charity from our auction and raffle thanks to many generous donations and support from those attending and we are hoping to beat this figure from Auto Assembly 2008 and we are already off to a flying start with donated and pledged items including the following:-

Auto Assembly 2004 RiD Sideburn/Mirage postcard - signed by Wally Wingert
Auto Assembly 2005 RiD Optimus Prime postcard - signed by Neil Kaplan
Auto Assembly 2006 Beast Wars Megatron postcard - signed by David Kaye
Signed photo of Neil Ross (G1 - Slag, Springer, Hook, Bonecrusher...)
Auto Assembly 2008 postcard original artwork - Simon Williams
Auto Assembly 2008 original artwork - Mike Collins
Auto Assembly 2008 original artwork - artist TBC
Signed photo - Wankus (RiD - Prowl)
Signed "something" - David Sobolov (Beast Wars - Depth Charge)

We are waiting for a lot more items as well so it's shaping up to be a great auction this time around but we want more and this time we're asking for YOUR help! If any of you have any items that you would like to donate we'd love to hear from you!

The sort of things we are looking for are items that are a little bit different, rare, more collectible or unique, so we're not looking for more modern items really. The convention itself is going to have more of a focus on G1 although we are still going to be open to donations of almost anything. If you can send items to us in advance that would be great but if not, if you can let us know in advance (and ideally send us a photo or two) and then make sure we have them on the night before the convention then that will be fine!

The best things we are looking for would be signed items, original comic artwork, convention exclusive toys, old mint boxed G1 toys, toy prototypes, limited edition comics, toys and similar items that are hard to find - that sort of thing. If in doubt, get in touch!

If any of you can help, it would be greatly appreciated and we're sure it would help us to smash our previous fundraising efforts. If you could help, our postal address for all donations is:-

Auto Assembly 2008 Charity Auction
PO Box 8966
Great Barr
Birmingham
B43 5ST
England

As well as the auction, we will be holding a raffle so if you have any regular items you may wish to donate as prizes for this, please feel free to send anything or bring these along on the Friday evening and again, funds raised from this will go to Help A Local Child.

Many thanks and we look forward to seeing you all on 2nd August!

Simon and Sven
Auto Assembly 2008

email: enquiries@autoassembly.org.uk
web: www.autoassembly.org.uk
forum: http://autoassembly.proboards7.com

tel. +44 (0)7860 948296 / +44 (0)7804 951406