BEXHILL LIFELINE

Aviva Community Fund rewards the club with a vital grant

BEXHILL ABC has been awarded a £23,000 grant from the Aviva Community Fund. The Aviva Community Fund offers a chance to get funding for an important cause in your community. Bexhill secured the grant with a total of 8,539 votes.

Bexhill has never had its own premises but two years ago was left without a gym after their agreement with a community centre ended. Now Bexhill Squash Club is making room for them. The new funding will allow them to refit a gym.

“The grant literally means everything to us as a club,” club chairman Rian Witcomb said. “Although the grant will be ‘fixing’ areas that may not be seen by others such as external cladding, roofing, and electrics it means that moving forward as a club we will no longer have the burden of this work hanging over us. If these issues had escalated at any point it could have put the future of our club in jeopardy.

“We are now no longer walking on a ‘knife edge’ and within a few months we will have our own premises that is suitable for our members and will allow our club to grow and provide an ongoing service to the local community.

“After identifying the opportunity offered by the Aviva Community fund we took stock of the issues that we needed to tackle, and made our pitch. We then made great use of social and local media to highlight our cause. The support we received from the people of Bexhill, our members, our friends, and family etc. was amazing. They all took time out vote for us, and encourage others to do the same.

“We want our club to grow further as we believe we can offer a great environment for people to not only learn to box, but get fit and make friends.

“There are far too many people to thank. However, the main thanks has to go to the rest of the coaches and committee members who all volunteer their time to ensure that the club runs smoothly, and also to the club’s members and their parents who make the club a fun, and friendly place to be.”