Sport Northern Ireland: Creating Opportunities has provided £5,000 of match funding
Drumsurn GAC Fitness Classes & Equipment Upgrade
Limavady, Causeway Coast and Glens, United Kingdom
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Aim: Our plan is to upgrade the gym equipment and run classes to provide safe, modern, and inclusive fitness opportunities for everyone.
Who are we?
St. Matthew's GAC Drumsurn was founded in 1927. Our aims and objectives centre around supporting player development and well-being, fostering physical activity, and promoting community engagement. We aim to:
- Promote Health and Fitness: Encourage physical activity and healthy lifestyles among members and the community.
- Foster Participation in Sports: Provide opportunities for people of all ages and skill levels to participate in sports and recreational activities.
We run a community hub for all ages to engage in sport, leisure, arts and fun for all. We have two grass pitches, one large, one small, and a community hall and kitchen which are used seven days a week to provide football, hurling, camogie, basketball, ladies and men's fitness classes, ladies and men's gym classes, underage strength and conditioning, walking groups, Zumba, adult jive classes, Pilates, Yoga, Irish dancing, indoor soccer, bowls, Irish language classes, drama, community plays, traditional music class, writing club, local history events, couch to 5 K, over 60s fitness classes. It is also used by our local primary school for their weekly PE lessons and after school clubs due to lack of hall space, and during inclement weather. Alongside all the sport and recreation and the arts, we also run charity events, mental health and well-being initiatives, the Big Bus (health checks), social fundraising events, tea/coffee mornings, arts & crafts fairs, etc to encourage everyone in our community to connect with their friends and neighbours and to reduce the feeling of isolation and loneliness in this very rural setting.
Why are we crowdfunding?
We are raising money to deliver some additional participation projects to what we are already delivering at the club. To do this, we desperately need to upgrade our gym equipment, as our current equipment is old, worn, out-of-date and not fit for purpose and to meet the training demands of a modern player, aspiring athlete or individual wanting to improve general health and fitness. Our senior teams currently have to travel to use other gyms to facilitate strength and conditioning training for the whole season. This is added time and travel costs for many of our young players still in education or training.
As part of the upgrading of the gym equipment, we will run a series of additional participation projects spanning over 12 weeks between August and October 2025 to engage our current participants at the club and attract new people into our club from the local community, who may have previously been involved or never been involved before. The three main projects will be as follows:
- St Matthew’s GAC Drumsurn specialised strength and conditioning sessions – these will be new sessions delivered on our facility over the course of 12 weeks to support the development of our current senior and youth teams. There will be a total of 6 teams with approximately 30 participants per session twice a week. This will be delivered by our 2 qualified strength and conditioning coaches.
- Drumsurn Older and active – we will deliver an older and active community programme for 6 weeks, looking to use our gym facility for basic and light resistance exercises suitable for our older population, so that they can remain active and engaged within their local club.
- Female participation sessions – we will run a six week project for females to deliver basic gym sessions by a specialised coach to boost confidence and physical activity levels. This will be predominantly aimed at mothers/guardians coming along to the club during their children’s training sessions.
We need to raise money to continue to make progress with our five-stage development plan to improve our facilities. We have successfully completed stage three of this plan with your very generous support, and once again, we ask you to support us in this next exciting stage of development. The money from the fund will be used to run thee above mentioned classes for a wide range of participants and to buy new equipment to run the classes safely.
Our project meets many of this fund's criteria and priorities by:
-Improving the health of residents in this rural community by upgrading our gym equipment for our health and wellbeing hub which will be open seven days a week, twelve months of the year.
-Promoting the care and support of elderly and vulnerable people through organisation of classes and support groups for physical fitness, yoga, relaxation and other social activities which will reduce isolation and loneliness in the elderly and vulnerable category.
-Promoting recreational and sporting activities in our young children and adults, we will be able to run many classes for strength and conditioning of all age groups, yoga, pilates, breathwork, meditation, etc.
-Improving strength and conditioning for our senior ladies camogie team as there is currently insufficient space to accommodate all players in one session.
-Improving and maintaining community facilities which will be there for many years to come.
How we’ll spend the money raised
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For this project to be successfully delivered, it is essential that we obtain the equipment to deliver the sessions. Not only will this equipment go to support the 12 weeks mentioned above, but will continue to support the club and local community for years to come with an opportunity to take part in physical activity. Alongside some of the specialised coaching (a lot of which we will cover the costs of), we need your support to purchase the new gym equipment - we plan to purchase new weights, barbells, racks, kettlebells, dumbbells, floor mats, safety mats, benches, and a SkiErg.
The budget breakdown below outlines how we propose to spend the money we raise to deliver this exciting project:
Budget Item No. 1: Power racks & barbells and hexagonal weights set
Description: To deliver the essential resistance training programme we need 5 new barbells at £1000 per item and 2x hexagonal weights set at £1000 per pack.
Cost: £7000
Budget Item No. 2: Safety gym mats/ yoga mats
Description: 4 safety floor mats @ £90 each & 25 yoga mats @£9 each for the delivery of our community programmes
Cost: £600
Budget Item No. 3: SkiErg
Description: one new SkiErg to allow pairs to work together
Cost: £900
Budget Item No. 4: Benches
Description: 10 benches @£150
Cost: £1500
TOTAL AMOUNT
£10,000
Community impact
This project will have a wide impact in terms of age and gender. It will offer health benefits to everyone in the Drumsurn community and beyond. It will provide a safe, clean and friendly space for residents to improve their health and wellbeing and to socialise with friends and neighbours. Through delivering our community-based programmes, as well as our club ones, we aim to attract more people than ever to our club.
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!
Funding method
Keep what you raise – this project will receive all pledges made by 23rd July 2025 at 10:26pm