Help save Watford Gymnastics club
Watford Gymnastics Club is desperately seeking funds to secure a home.
The club has been made homeless due to redevelopment and needs to raise money to help with the cost of moving to a new venue in order to survive as a club and a community.
Watford gymnastics club was established in 2014. We are a community club based in Watford, We work very hard to make the club a welcoming, safe place for everyone who attends our classes. Although we do not specialise in SEND due to our hard work and how inclusive our club is, we now have many children with additional needs attending our mainstream and SEND classes.
Our main aim is to encourage children to be active, have fun whilst they are learning gymnastics. Our club motto is ‘best hour of their week’ and we strive to achieve that with every child in every class.
In 2018 we invested £100,000 to upgrade all our equipment and become a permanent facility. This allowed us to grow further as a club and offer more to all our members. Before we closed due to COVID in March 2020 we had 900 members. As a not-for-profit organisation, we have struggled through COVID, due to the amount of time we had to continue to paying the clubs outgoings and not having any income has depleted our reserves. However, in September, we did manage to return but, with reduced numbers due to government guidelines and now have just over 600 members. Only to have to close again, although this was frustrating and financially damaging we held on to the hope this wouldn't be forever and looking forward to seeing all the children again kept us going!
Then in Jan 2021, we were given the devastating news that we could no longer stay at our current venue due to redevelopment. We felt like our world had come crashing down around us through no fault of our own. Words can not describe how we have felt through the months of turmoil that have preceded this.
Due to COVID, we are left with no reserves to help fund the move. This is a huge cost that we were not expecting to have to undertake, let alone in these very uncertain times. But we have no choice so we are asking for your help. We are asking members, non-members, local businesses, anyone that can spare any money to help us with this move. We understand that this is a very difficult time for everyone, but ask that if you can please please donate. every penny will help us.