PRESS RELEASE
Ben Launches Bricks Bid To Stop Youth Club Going To Wall
Star of Channel 4’s new documentary, Secret Millionaire tries to save Hackney youth club
YOUNG internet millionaire Ben Way is using his business acumen to save a struggling youth club on London’s murder mile.
Last year, the entrepreneur donated around £50,000 of his own money to Hackney’s Pedro Club - after appearing on Channel 4’s Secret Millionaire programme.
But despite the donation - which paid for a recording studio at the East London venue - the club is still threatened due to a shortage of Government funding and Ben plans to raise a further £100,000 through his 1000 Bricks initiative to secure the club’s future.
Businesses can buy a brick for £100 - their money gets them a real brick in an internal wall at the Pedro Club which will have their company logo painted on it and a virtual brick on the new website 1000bricks.com, which provides a link to their own websites.
The cash amounts to around one year’s running costs for the Pedro Club - which has been credited with bringing down gun violence in Hackney and helping scores of youngsters turn their backs on crime.
Ben, who founded his first company at the age of 15, said he has launched the initiative because he is angry that the Government seems willing to allow the club to go to the wall.
He said: “From a Government point of view, £100,000 is nothing - it’s small change and yet they seem to be willing to let something as valuable as The Pedro Club go to the wall.
“From my point of view, especially when you look at the recent shooting around London, is like them saying ‘we’ve found a cure for cancer but we’re not going to go ahead and fund it‘. It makes no sense.
“So, if the Government aren’t prepared to help, I’m going to have to do their work for them and sort this out. This club makes a massive difference to young people in Hackney and it must be saved.”
Ben, 25, first visited the Pedro Club last year, where he lived on the breadline and worked as a volunteer at the venue for ten days as part of the Channel 4 show.
At the end of the episode, he revealed his identity and pledged cash to the club - which was founded by Katharine Elliot, later Baroness Elliot of Harwood, in 1929 - from his own pocket.
But Ben, who is dyslexic and watched his own business empire collapse at the age of just 21, developed a real passion for the work done at the centre and made a long-term commitment to its future by joining the board of directors.
Ufu Niazi, who runs The Pedro Club, which was once financially supported by Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, said: “Every year, costs increase and we’re competing for an ever-diminishing funding pot. There’s a common misconception that youth clubs such as ours are funded by local authorities - but the vast majority, including ourselves, rely on charitable donations.
“We are operating in one of the most problematic areas of London and I know that in the last year we’ve played a massive part in the 10 per cent reduction in crime in Hackney.
“We’re in the middle of three massive estates here and we’re the only facility of this kind for young people in this area.
“In Hackney, the only crimes that went up last year were burglaries and moped related incidents - and we’ve just launched a new initiative to fight crimes involving mopeds.
The situation is simple - if we close, crime goes up here.”
Millionaire Ben, who has subsequently rebuilt his fortune, took the idea for the initiative from close friend and fellow entrepreneur Alex Tew - whose Million Dollar Homepage made him a millionaire overnight last year.
Alex, who is advising Ben on the 100 Bricks project, said: “Ben is doing all the leg work with this - he’s spent a lot of time at the Pedro Club and he’s really passionate about it, so this is very much his baby.
“From my point of view, it’s wonderful that a fantastic cause such as this will hopefully stay afloat - because of my original idea.
“When I first thought-up milliondollarhomepage.com I never imagined it had the potential to do so much good for charity. That makes me feel very good.”
Google and eBay have already bought bricks on the site, along with a range of creative agencies and smaller companies.
ENDS
Notes to editors
To interview or photograph Ben Way, please contact Julia Mitchell at Toast PR, juliamitchell@toastpr.co.uk or telephone 07867 638373
