- Area:
- Wales
- Programme:
- Awards for All Wales
- Release date:
- 21 5 2012
A Wheelchair Basketball Club in Wrexham aims to leave a lasting Olympic and Paralympics’ legacy, whilst other communities in Wales are gearing up to celebrate the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee thanks to more than half a million pounds in small grants awarded from the Big Lottery Fund to a range of community groups and organisations throughout the country today.
A total of 155 community-based projects across Wales share in the £556,595 awarded under the latest round of the Awards for All small grants programme today (full list of awards at the end of the release).
Olympic Occasions
With only 67 days to go until the eyes of the World focus on the 2012 Olympics, Welsh projects are getting in on the act and are hoping to use the games to leave a lasting legacy in their communities thanks to Awards for All funding.
With their award of £5,000, the Celtic Warriors Wheelchair Basketball Club in Wrexham, North Wales, will run weekly two hour intergenerational sessions at at the Darland Leisure Centre, Wrexham, with the aim of tapping in to the Olympic spirit and making full use of the clubs’ stock of lightweight sports wheelchairs by allowing people of all ages to take part in fun and games regardless of whether they have a physical disability or condition that prevents them from taking part in activities. The activities on offer will include indoor throwing based target games, badminton, pool and catching games with soft balls. Experts in health and nutrition will also visit the sessions to pass on important advice.
Highlighting the importance of the project in relation to the Olympic and Paralympic Games, Michael Hayes, the Development Manager and Committee Member for the Celtic Warriors Wheelchair Basketball Club, said: “As a local group, it’s vital for us to feed off the passion generated by the Olympic and Paralympic games and leave a lasting legacy in the community.”
“This project will enable people to have a go and see what can be acheived when they’re offered an opportunity in sport. The timing is right for us to step out and expand people’s awarness of what we do.”
He added: “This money is invaluable because it will allow us to work with local people who have never considered doing wheelchair activities or played sport before. This is a golden opportunity for people to do something different and improve their health and wellbeing whilst making friends.”
In Pembrokeshire, the Roch School Kids Club in Preseli (£4,330) and the Santes Ffair After School Club (£2,797) in Pembroke Dock will also be arranging a range of physical, cultural and craft activities for children attending their clubs to help them celebrate the biggest sporting event on the planet.
Diamond Celebrations
And it’s not just the Olympics we are gearing up to celebrate this year. Many other Welsh communities are also switching to party mode to celebrate the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee, marking 60 years since the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II.
Between 12 and 6pm on June 9th, around 1,500 people are expected to descend on Brynmill Park in Swansea for a fun-packed day full of celebration thanks to the £5,000 awarded to Tom Morgans Friends of Brynmill Park to host a giant Jubilee celebration. Bringing people of different ages, experiences, backgrounds and cultures together, the event will have something for everyone including entertainers for senior citizens, clowns and games for children and young people, charity stalls, storytelling and dancing.
Mrs Ann James, the Secretary of Tom Morgans Friends of Brynmill Park, said: “It means a great deal to everyone to have this celebration and we are hoping to involve communities from all areas surounding Brynmill Park. I’ve lived here for 75 years and there isn’t a single celebration that this area hasn’t celebrated. We’ve always done something. Due to the roads being busier these days, it’s not as easy to shut streets and this is why we have taken this celebration to Brynmill Park to host an even bigger event which more people can enjoy.”
She added: “Ocassions like this don’t come along that often, so it’s important to make the most of them.”
“But it’s not just about celebrating the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee; it’s about getting together with the whole community and building friendships. We have done a lot of fundraising ourselves but we wouldn’t have been able to organise this event without the Awards for All funding.”
In Powys, the Leighton Events Group in Montgomeryshire (£2,980), Paincastle and District Village Hall (£2,900), Llanfair Caereinion Town Council (£4,375) and Newtown Carnival Trust (£2,000) will also be throwing a big party thanks to their Awards for All cash injection. And elsewhere in Wales, Swffryd Community Centre Youth Club (£2,650) in Blaenau Gwent and Llansantffraed Community Council (£2,500) in Ceredigion will also be hosting Jubilee celebrations galore.
Life Savers
The Awards for All cash is also helping to keep the seas and beaches around the coast of South Wales safer this summer. Sker & Pink Bay Surf Life Saving Club in Bridgend (£5,000) and Newgale Surf Life Saving Club (£4,256) in Pembrokeshire will spend their awards on updating vital equipment.
Star Gazers
The Preseli Mountains in Pembrokeshire are apparently where the stones to build the inner circle of Stonehenge are descended from. Many believe that Stonehenge was used as an ancient astronomical observatory to track the changing of the seasons. Now thanks to a grant of £4,830 from Awards for All, the Preseli Astronomy Group will be bringing the wonders of the Universe to more people in the area by kitting out their club with the equipment required to deliver public lectures and engage the group members and the wider public in star gazing events. The money will fund a laptop, projector, telescope and mount and a Personal Solar Telescope.
Gareth Williams, Awards for All Programme Manager for BIG in Wales, said: “Awards for All is having a positive impact throughout Wales. Money is helping to establish groups, societies and clubs, promoting learning, increasing volunteering opportunities and helping to build stronger communities.”
Available in English and Welsh, application forms are available to download from www.awardsforall.org.uk or by phone on 0845 4 10 20 30.
Full list of awards announced in Wales today
- 122KB
Further Information
Big Lottery Fund Press Office: 02920 678 207
Out of Hours Contact: 07760 171 431
Public Enquiries Line: 08454 102030
Textphone: 0845 6021 659
Full details of the Big Lottery Fund programmes and grant awards are available at: www.biglotteryfund.org.uk
Notes to Editors
- In Wales, the Big Lottery Fund is rolling out close to £100,000 a day in National Lottery good cause money, which together with other Lottery distributors means that across Wales most people are within a few miles of a Lottery-funded project.
- The Big Lottery Fund, the largest of the National Lottery good cause distributors, has been rolling out grants to health, education, environment and charitable causes across the UK since its inception in June 2004. It was established by Parliament on 1 December 2006.
- Since the National Lottery began in 1994, 28p from every pound spent by the public has gone to Good Causes. As a result, over £28 billion has now been raised and more than 383,000 grants given out across the arts, sport, heritage, charities, health, education and the environment.
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