Grants enable Arnside Sailing Club to offer Paddle Boarding
Arnside Sailing Club have been awarded grants of £8500 enabling them to buy 11 new paddle boards.
Alasdair Simpson for the Club said “Paddle boarding is one of the fastest growing sports in the country. The estuary at Arnside is the ideal place to learn as at low tide the water as shallow enough to stand up in. Government restrictions now allow up to 6 people to meet outdoors as long as they keep 2 metres apart. Guidance from the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport and from national sport bodies advise that it is now possible to offer training course as long people keep 2 metres apart, numbers are restricted and strict hygiene rules are in place, for example disinfecting equipment after use.
We plan on running paddle boarding lessons at Arnside from the end of June. Paddle boarding is a sport that can be taught and enjoyed whilst maintaining social distancing. We will be disinfecting the boards and paddles between use and requiring people taking part in the lessons to use hand sanitisers before and after the classes.”
Lucy Barron, Manager for the Arnside Silverdale Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty said: “Our fund is run by the AONB Partnership and Landscape Trust working together. We were delighted to offer a grant of £2500 to this project to enable people to experience the AONB in a new way. Paddle Boarding lessons will enable participants to enjoy Arnside’s outstanding marine environment in a safe and responsible way guided by the Sailing Club.”
Imran Nawaz, Stakeholder Advisor and Community Benefit Manager at Ørsted UK, said “We are contributing £4500 through our Walney Extension Community Fund towards the cost. The paddle boards will come with windsurf rigs so the Club can also provide wind surfing lessons. As the world leader in offshore wind and a global leader in the fight against climate change, we are delighted to be supporting a local project that is also good for the environment.”
Julie Barton, the High Sheriff of Cumbria said “I had a virtual meeting with Arnside Sailing Club in May. It was great to hear how the Sailing Club is a thriving community club making sailing and paddle boarding available to everyone via training schemes whilst keeping costs low. Their club house has been used by Arnside Community Volunteers during the Crisis. Cumbria Community Foundation is helping the Club buy the new paddle boards through a £1500 grant from their Holehird Fund. In the past Cumbria Community Foundation has awarded the club grants to buy sailing boats, including two catamarans for children and teenagers.”
Further Information
Alasdair Simpson, 01524 762386 Email [email protected]
- Arnside Sailing Club
Arnside Sailing Club is a thriving community sports club. Since 2014 the Club has more than doubled it membership by running a children’s sailing programme and offering sailing courses. Grant funding has enabling the club to buy new boats. As well as sailing, the club offers canoeing and now paddle boarding and wind surfing on the estuary at Arnside. In 2019 it was RYA North West Sailing Club of the Year.
- Arnside Silverdale Grant Fund
This Fund is run by the Arnside & Silverdale AONB Partnership and the Arnside/Silverdale AONB Landscape Trust working together and offers grants of up to £2500 for projects that conserve and enhance the AONB or connect people with the landscape. Further information can be found here:
https://www.arnsidesilverdaleaonb.org.uk/what-we-do/grants/arnside-silverdale-grants-fund/
- Cumbria Community Foundation
Cumbria Community Foundation is an independent charity run by a Board of Trustees. With support from their fundholders they have made grants of more than £44 million since their inception in 1999. They provide a means by which people and organisations can make a difference to the most disadvantaged people in our community. Cumbria Community Foundation is part of a national and international network of community foundations.
The grant for paddle boards has come from the Holehird Fund, which is managed by Cumbria Community Foundation with the County Council as trustee. The Holehird Fund has been set up to help fund projects in the former county of Westmorland, including those benefiting children and young people
- Ørsted and Walney Extension Community Fund
Headquartered in Denmark, Ørsted is one of the world’s leading green energy companies. Ørsted operates on and off shore wind farms, solar sites and bioenergy plants. Globally, Ørsted is the market leader in offshore wind. Its UK offshore wind farms, including the Walney Extension, generate enough electricity for over 3.2million UK homes.
The Walney Extension offshore wind farm is located off Walney Island. With a capacity of 659MW, Walney Extension is one of the world’s largest offshore wind farms comprising 87 turbines
The windfarm provides funding for Walney Extension Community Fund. The Fund supports community and environmental projects along the Cumbria and Lancashire coast, within a defined area. It distributes grants of around £600,000 each year. The fund is managed by GrantScape.
GrantScape manages a range of community and environmental grant programmes on behalf of corporate and local authority clients. Since 1997 it has awarded grants of over £90 million to deserving project.
PHOTOS BY VICTORIA SEDGWICK
