Who are we?
Bowmen of Glen are an archery club formed over 60 years ago, providing opportunities for participation in all forms of archery for thousands of people, from Great Glen, Harborough District and the wider surrounding areas in that time.
Our club-membership, guests and visitors reflect the economic, social and ethnic diversity of Leicestershire who will all benefit from our project.
Volunteer members manage all events, and maintain/repair our current facilities, run the above Community activities and tournaments, develop/run free coaching sessions, manage the Club’s development plans, etc. This is achieved through prudent financial management, allowing us to keep our Membership fees as low as possible, including heavily subsidising Junior memberships.
Archery has proven, to us at Bowmen of Glen, that it can bring success and a great sense of achievement to those, often hard to reach people of all ages, including those who may never make the football, rugby or cricket team. The benefits of taking part in sport goes well beyond the sports field, boosting self-confidence, well-being and overall life skills.
Archery is genuinely a democratic sport. It embraces archers of all abilities and ages. It creates social cohesion across all ages. An excellent goal when these days, society appear to play one age group against another.
Why are we crowdfunding?
The current Clubhouse is a major disincentive in attracting new members and retaining existing members, particularly family groups and those with accessibility needs. The absence of an indoor facility also limits most activities to daylight hours and good weather. In inclement weather there is nowhere practical for members to shelter with stored equipment and a work-area currently take up most of the limited space.
Our accessible facilities are inadequate and whilst there is access to a disabled toilet, there is no wheelchair access into the clubhouse and some disabled participants get changed in their vehicles. An all-year-round, accessible facility will increase our opportunity to engage more people in physical activity more often.
The improved experience, provided by the new facility, will remove barriers to our growth and development, increase our membership and reduce membership drop-off, whilst providing a new venue for the local community to use for many different activities.
Delivering this project will allow Bowmen of Glen to roll-out existing programmes to other schools and organisations within Leicestershire.
Currently, activities are limited to daylight hours and good weather. This all-weather, year-round capability will vastly increase the opportunity to engage more people in physical activity more often, improve accessibility for people with mobility and other conditions.
Sport England sees the value of your project and has pledged £7500 if we can raise the other £7500 through 75 unique supporters through this Crowdfunder campaign. Harborough District Council have also provided significant support including us in their Built in Sports Facilities Strategy and providing 106 funding of over £145 000.
How we’ll spend the money raised
We have already raised funds to build a 14m x 36m steel frame building through club funds and a 106 grant from Harborough District Council. This will provide an empty building with the capacity for a clubhouse and indoor archery range.
This Crowdfunder campaign will provide us with sufficient resources to fit out the building for use, specifically:
- Flooring
- Rooflights
- Internal walls & doors for entrance area, kitchen and toilets/changing rooms
- Bathroom goods including accessible toilets, basins, grab rails and pull cord alarm
- Kitchen units
- Electrical supplies (inc lighting, sockets, toilet alarm etc)
- Electronic scoring system - to support World Record Status indoor archery tournaments
Wherever possible we are using volunteer members for construction. In these cases, the costs below are for materials only.
The concrete flooring, rooflights and groundworks for electricity supply will be completed by our builders. In these cases, costs include supply and fit.
Community impact
As well as being an amazing archery facility, our project will create a new recreation space, available to the community. It's scope, scale and potential future growth will be able to absorb significant increase in demand from the growing population as a result of new developments.
Many people of all ages and abilities join the club, complete beginners’ courses, come for competitions or free open days. Others enjoy have-a-go days at our ground and at community events like the annual Great Glen Wheelbarrow race where we also offer archery experiences.
Each year, schools, scouts, church groups, and others, totalling 320+ non-archers, (200+ being young people), enjoy archery sessions with us, many of which are free of charge. For many this is their first involvement with sport. All these events are run/supervised by our Archery/GB qualified/DBS vetted coaches, ensuring a safe and enjoyable experience.
Our annual World Record Status Tournaments see 800+ archers and spectators visit Bowmen of Glen from all parts of the country and internationally.
Owning our ground means we will be able to provide both an outdoor and indoor sports venue, where people can be active, against ever-encroaching developments and loss of open spaces.
How you can play your part
There are four simple ways to help us reach our target, and make this project a reality.
1. Make a pledge. Don’t delay if you’re going to support us because momentum is key to our success!
2. Spread the word. Share our project on your social media pages and tell the world to get behind us! The more people we reach, the more support we will get.
3. Offer rewards. Get involved if you are a local business by donating things we can offer to our supporters. We will give you a shout out!
4. Fundraise for us. If you want to run your own fundraiser – maybe a sponsored activity or similar – use the 'contact project' button at the top of our page to let us know. Setting up your own page only takes a few minutes and you won’t need any bank details. Just a fun idea!