Ladies and Gentlemen, we’ve got some very special news…
A key part of the strategy for creating a sustainable club has always been to own a plastic gig. They’re more suited to everyday use and training than our pride and joy ‘Amelie’. Plastic gigs are more durable and less labour-intensive to maintain.
As you might already know, we’ve been incredibly fortunate to benefit from ‘Club-in-a-box’ – an initiative set up by the CPGA, Sports England, St Austell’s Brewery, British Rowing and gigrower.co.uk, and were loaned Seven Stars Tribute Gig for a year. As well as helping to get more people out on the water, Seven Stars Tribute Gig, has allowed us to keep rowing (and raising funds!) whilst carrying out much needed maintenance on Amelie. But later next year we’ll hand her back.
Knowing how important a second boat is for the club, earlier this year we applied for grant funding through Sussex Giving. Our bid was matched with the the Rampion Community Benefit Fund who offer grants of up to £10k to support projects with links to environment and ecology, climate change and energy, and improved community facilities. Anyway, I’ll cut to the chase…
With almost-teary-eyed joy that we’re very happy to announce… we’ve been awarded funding by Rampion to buy our very own plastic gig!!!
Huge thanks to everyone who’s put time and effort into getting our club to this point. So many people have helped in so many ways. It feels like a huge step forward in securing the future of our wonderful club and making sure there’s gig rowing in Newhaven for a very long time to come.
Now… Anyone got any good boat names lined up 🙂