A gymnastics club in Suffolk has been given a much-needed boost to help cope with the repercussions of closing down during Covid-19.
Sudbury Gymnastics Club has been given a helping hand by the National Lottery receiving almost £6,000 through Sport England’s Community Emergency Fund and has been busy refurbishing the centre before re-opening in September.
On March 31, Sport England announced a £195 million deal to help the sport and physical activity sector - with a £20million community emergency fund package of National Lottery money to deliver immediate funding to those who have a role in supporting the nation to be active.
Sudbury Gymnastics Club has been busy overhauling the centre ready to reopen and has built new changing room facilities, disabled toilets and revamped its viewing area.
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Head coach Emily O’Neil said: “Sudbury Gymnastics Club is very grateful to Sport England for the grant it has awarded us.
“It will help in covering every day running costs while we are closed and hopefully help with our recovery once we can get back into delivering our gymnastic classes.
“We have all of our classes returning week commencing August 31 and we have a lot of people wanting to do gymnastics with us.”
Tim Hollingsworth, Sport England’s chief executive, said: “As the body responsible for the growth of sport and physical activity participation, we want the vital grassroots organisations that make sport and physical activity happen in this country to not just to come through this crisis but to be in a position to thrive again in the future.
“The £20m Community Emergency fund, made possible by National Lottery players, is part of a multi-million pound package of support we are providing to ease the pressure on a huge number of the organisations who are central to the nation’s health and wellbeing.
“We are proud to be able to provide vital funding to Sudbury Gymnastics Club to help it through these extremely challenging times.”
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Andy Wood, a director at the club, said: “The team at Sudbury Gymnastics Club have worked hard in getting funding to secure the future of the club.
“We are a Community Amateur Sports Club (CASC) and without this funding we would have struggled to survive without any income.
“Although we are returning gradually, we are confident that our classes will be full come August 31 when we start back fully with all classes back to normal - but with new social distancing and hygiene procedures in place to keep the children and staff as safe as possible.”
For more information, telephone: 01787 377967 or email: sudburygymclub@hotmail.com
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