This year’s DIY Dinner, which took place at the Royal Garden Hotel, London, during the DIY & Garden Show and Totally Tools at Earls Court, raised an estimated £32,000 for the Rainy Day Trust, the trade charity of the home improvement industry.
Dinner organiser, Ashley Leboff, said that the success of the dinner is due to the generous support of Brintex, which owns the two exhibitions and gives the evening over to the charity, the company hosts and their guests, and the table sponsors, who provide the much-needed financial support.

This year's main sponsor was Dulux Paints, which also offered two round-the-world airline tickets as the star item in the evening's auction.

The highest bid went to Jim Cuddy, of Irish Abrasives, a guest of Saint Gobain Abrasives.

Gold sponsors were: Crown Paints, Calor, Liberon and Ronseal.

Silver sponsors were: Bostik, Johnstone's Paints, Specialist Group and Decco, which was also the main sponsor of the raffle.

In the absence of the Rainy Day Trust's (RDT) president, John Poore, who is currently recovering from a successful hip operation, past president David Hibbert, welcomed the guests and introduced the new logo for the charity.

Mr Hibbert explained the refocusing of the RDT as the charity of the home improvement industry.

"Too many people see us as caring only for pensioners," he said, "What they don't fully appreciate is that we help people and families who are still in their 30's, 40's and 50's, who also need our assistance – people from household retailers like B&Q and Wilkinson as well as many other well known manufacturers and suppliers."

He urged guests to go back to their own companies and spread the word throughout their branches, depots and factories, to remember the RDT when raising money for the larger charities and give a small part of the money they raise, to their own charity.

"In that way we hope we can look after more people and have the funds to do so."

He also thanked Inc Design, which donated all the redesign and production costs of the new identity.

The DIY Dinner celebrates its 10th anniversary on Monday, January 19 next year and is inviting all previous guests to vote to see their favourite act again.

For more information, see the RDT Annual Review 2007/8, which is enclosed with this week's issue of DIY Week or contact ashley@penashe.co.uk