Let's go MEGA for METRO!! Wirral Metro Crowdfunder

Aim

Covid-19 has had a drastic effect on our club. We need funds to pay for pool hire space for our young swimmers to continue their training.

Who are Wirral Metro?

Wirral Metro Swimming Club is Wirral's only elite performance swim squad and is based at Europa Pools in Birkenhead. The performance swim programme guides young swimmers aged 10-22. through a Long Term Athlete Development Plan, with a vision to competing at County, Regional, National and International levels.

Backing the swimmers is an extremely committed team, consisting of a professional performance coach and a large volunteer team of a committee, administrators, poolside assistants and parents. Wirral Metro does not receive any local council funding. 

The main ambition is to create one of the North West’s leading swimming, coaching and training environments, and provide a proven pathway of success.

Why are we Crowdfunding?

We want Wirral Metro to be here for many years to come! To continue to swim safely, be able to afford the hours of training the swimmers need, to be able to hold galas again, and to go on to grow, develop and support not only this generation, but future generations, of performance swimmers on Wirral.

This is why we have signed up to Sport England Match Funding Return to Play Active Together ...  the great news is, that Sport England have agreed to match fund us for 50% of our target, but we will need to reach 100% of our full target, in order to secure this. 

How can you help?

• By offering a Prize or Reward that members can purchase
• By purchasing a Reward or by making a Donation

All the money goes to the club, and if we hit our target it will be matchfunded by Sport England.

To raise money for this Crowdfunder, we are hoping to offer rewards from lots of local businesses. Our swimmers are currently approaching businesses within the area in their spare time to increase the rewards on offer. We are also planning a sponsored event in October when all our swimmers will take part. This will see our swimmers swim the equivalent distance from Europa Pools, where they train, to Paris, where the next Olympics will be held.

A race night is also being planned and we are looking into other opportunities such as attending car boot sales, clothes weigh in and a preowned kit sale.

Watch this space!!

The Dramatic Effect of Covid-19

Covid-19 had a drastic effect on the squad, the club went from 60+ members, now down to less than 20, due to an inability to return to the pool. We have also had to lose two coaches as we are now unable to fund them.

Post covid, due to social distancing measures in and around the pool, reduced swimming session times - due to the council needing to intensively clean between sessions - squad members who have left could not be replaced by new members. This left a huge financial burden on the club. Wirral Metro does not receive any assisted funding. All pool hire costs, coaching costs, insurance, volunteer registrations, licenses etc are paid for through swimmer memberships and occasional galas held by the club.  Unfortunately, again due to Covid-19, all our own galas are still on hold for the forseeable future. As we used to hold five per year, this is a truly devastating loss of income. Quite simply, without being able to replace this lost income, the club may be forced to close.

In September 2020, Wirral Metro where able to return to the pool due to lockdown being lifted and our first Crowdfunder, which raised over £10,000. This included £4,500 match funding from Sport England, and allowed us to get all of our swimmers back in the water, even when faced with local Council pools still being closed, as we used part of the funding to pay for hire of a private pool. Unfortunately as pool costs remained high and we were unable to hold galas, this money was absorbed very quickly.

How will the new funding be used?

Sadly, we now need a second crowdfunder. Our main source of income was from the many galas per year that we used to hold. Unfortunately, these are still on hold for the foreseeable future. Our reserves are depleting.....rapidly!!

The funding from our second crowdfunder would be able to assist Wirral Metro to continue as a Performance Squad for the 2021/2022 season... to tide us over until we can hold galas again. It would be used to pay for the pool hire whilst we have no additional income from galas - so that all swimmers have access to the required amount of training per week to be an elite swimmer. We are also hoping that we will be able to use funds to take on new members and increase our membership and coaching capacity.

We believe that Wirral Metro performance swimmers should get the the same opportunities as competitors in other areas of the country.

Our first aim is to survive, in order for us to then regrow. 

The Success Story of Wirral Metro

We are very proud to say Wirral Metro is an extremely successful swimming club!!

LET'S USE THIS NEW CROWDFUNDER TO GET BACK THERE!!

The club has seen many of it's swimmers become leading athletes - 

• Ex squad member Freya Anderson - European Championship, Commonwealth Games, World Aquatics Championship multi medal winner; AND NOW.......Olympic gold medalist for Tokyo 2020
• Ex squad member Cassie Wild - European Aquatics Championships gold AND silver medal winner; AND ALSO part of the GB Tokyo 2020 swim team.
• Ex squad member Matt Harding - retired from swimming and and now a weightlifter. Represented GB in the World Dwarf Athletic Games, as well as being a World Dwarf Champion, a British Dwarf Champion, and setting World Records.
• Current squad member Nathan Young - multiple British and English record holder, has represented GB at the European and World Deaf Swimming Championships, and the Deaflympics in 2017 and 2019. He is training for the World Deaf Short Course Championships in Poland and the next Deaflympics in 2022. He is the fifth fastest deaf swimmer in the world!!
• Current member Georgia Hytner - in training to attend selection trials for the 2022 Commonwealth Games.
• A truly staggering 16 of our younger squad members entered Swim England’s Festival Of Swimming 2021, with several ranked within the top 5 for their ages, in their events, in the whole North West. This event was held because of Covid, instead of the usual Regional and National competitions. To have such a high number of entries shows the dedication of our squad to have continued to train to a high standard post lockdown. WELL DONE TEAM!!
• The club is also currently home to national age group champions for freestyle and breaststroke. We have a number of swimmers on the regional and national talent pathways with Swim England.

(pics from the Festival of Swimming, Manchester, July 2021 - so excited to be competing again!!).

Committed young athletes

Above are just a few examples of current and past athletes. Quite an astonishing track record!! Let's not forget, these are all young athletes, who train around attending school and University commitments. 

Competing at these levels, training nine times a week in water and twice in the gym, whilst also attending school and managing homework, means the children are developing important life skills (such as time management skills, awareness of good nutrition, healthy lifestyle choices, increased confidence in the water). As well as all this, employability skills once they leave school are being improved! Many former members have gone on to use their high standard of swimming to assist them in gaining places at higher education colleges and universities in the UK and USA.

Let's get these kids in the pool & competing again... back where they belong!

Thanks for reading, we hope to see you poolside again soon!

From the team at Wirral Metro 

Gallery of reward items

Signed Freya Anderson ISL Backpack, t-shirt and cap

A3 Legend Performance Jammers - size 24 - £50

Aqua Sphere UK 32 

Maru UK 30" age 11/2

Arena Powerskin race suit black size 28" junior

Maru Fins size 4-5

Funkita Bikini Top - ladies size 8

Speedo Swimsuit age 13-14

Funkita red and black - girls size 14

Body Shop bag of goodies - £10

Arena Bathrobe - Ladies pink Arena bathrobe - £20

Arena training bathrobe - Mens large - £20

Arena silicone cap jr - lime - £5

Arena Cobra racing goggle - £10

Speedo Bullet cap - never worn - £5

Arena Powerskin Racing Goggles - Cobra Ultra Swipe Mirror - £15

ARMCANDYCOM personalised enamel bracelet - £12

Examples of beautiful cakes from The Moon Bakery

This project successfully funded on 18th November 2021