City of Salford Swimming Club Scoreboard Appeal

Who are we?

We are City of Salford Swimming Club (COSSC), started in 1977 with 12 swimmers and evolving to a Scheme with 300 members challenging at the highest level in the sport.

We're very proud of our history and heritage, and we're very much part of the community in Salford today.

International swimmers representing the Club being recognised for it's achievements and contribution to the community by our Lord Mayor Paul Dennet along with Ceremonial Mayor, Councillor Ann-Marie Humphreys, Mayoress Emma Humphreys and Chief Executive Tom Stannard 

Our swimmers range in age from 7 years to 21 years from learning to swim,  to high level competitors – and even up to international standard... fly swimmers, long distance swimmers and open water swimmers Salford has it all!. Run almost entirely by volunteers on a non-profit basis, we're one of the most successful competitive Clubs in the North West.

COSSC working in partnership with Salford Community Leisure (SCL) has nurtured swimmers from ‘learn to swim schemes’ in our local community to the very top of the sport for five decades.

A Club for the Community of Salford and beyond
COSSC plays a vital role providing opportunities and developing life-skills for our swimmers within the Club - many have commented on the discipline and work ethic of our young people - developed through the commitment and resilience of regular training. We also support our swimmers with personal development as many volunteer at our galas and have such a passion for swimming that they have gone on to become Coaches and Swimming Teachers either within the Club or for Salford Community Leisure.

Our swimmers volunteering as Timekeepers for our younger Academy swimmers

Why are we crowdfunding?

The Covid 19 Pandemic impacted our Club dramatically as the closure of pools reduced our membership by half and made it impossible to raise funds by hosting galas. We also lost valuable volunteers with skills and knowledge to help run our Club.

We are extremely proud of how our Club has bounced back from these challenges and thanks to a great Coaching team and the hard work of parent volunteers restored membership levels and the ability to run galas again. Without this income we couldn’t provide the opportunities for swimmers to fulfill their potential in the sport they love and achieve the outstanding successes of the past 2 years which include National Champions, National Para-Swimming Champions, British Champions, a current multiple British Record Holder, and International Medalists.

Salford Swimmers Amelie and Joe were selected to represent Team GB at this years European Junior Championships in Belgrade, with Amelie, just 14 years old, taking European Junior Silver Medal!  

Our community is among one of the 20 most deprived areas in the country and our Scheme offers opportunities for our swimmers from many diverse backgrounds as well swimmers with disabilities to thrive, develop and achieve successes that would not otherwise be possible.

To keep this opportunity as accessible as possible to our local Community the Club is non-profit and subsidises Camps, kit, away galas etc to help reduce costs as a barrier to participation, especially in this current cost of living crisis.

However, we have encountered another challenge which threatens our ability to raise funds. Our Gala Scoreboard has broken and our Timing equipment which is over 12 years old is failing. If we can’t replace these, then we are unable to run Galas which, as well as being disappointing for swimmers unable to compete in their own pool, are the only source of revenue for the Club. Without this important funding, Club activities and subsidies we can offer swimmers will be severely impacted

Unfortunately, this equipment is extremely expensive, so we need to raise £15,000. We are therefore appealing to all local businesses for support, as well as organising a number of fundraising initiatives to help us achieve our goal. 

We hope you can help, and support us continuing to create the Champions of tomorrow.

How we’ll spend the money raised

We hope to raise enough funds to purchase a new Scoreboard so we can run Licensed galas which help sustain our Club. These range in price from very basic that simply indicate the finish order to multimedia screens that may even be able to advertise sponsors. All are very expensive and what we can purchase will depend on what we are able to raise. Depending on what we can raise we may also try and upgrade our Timing Equipment which is over 12 years old and requiring tremendous patience from our very dedicated Timing Suite volunteers.  

Community impact

COSSC is more than a Swimming Club - it is an inclusive Scheme that as well as nurturing talent offers opportunity to young people from all backgrounds in the Salford Community to improve health, fitness and well-being. It teaches the outcomes of hard work, discipline and focus with many of our swimmers achieving the rewards of success at County, Regional, National and International levels. It offers the opportunity to give back to the Community with many of our swimmers supporting our younger members as volunteers, then being supported by the Club to become Swim Teachers and Coaches within the Scheme. This is especially pertinent at the moment as there is a national shortage of Swim Teachers with very significant implications of ensuring young people learn this vital life-saving skill. It also forges friendships that last a lifetime with many current and former swimmers looking back (and commenting on FB) about the very many happy memories they have of the Club, especially of the subsidised Swim Camps.   

Chiara Fellone - National Para-Swimming Champion

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!