Acklam Rugby Club - Keep Acklam Active

Aim

To keep the Acklam Rugby family active we need to be Acklam Active! Support your community Rugby Club to keep us all active.

Introduction to Acklam Rugby Club

Who we are?

Acklam Rugby Club was formed in 1976 and have been serving the local community in Middlesbrough ever since. We provide facilities and support to activities such as the Cleveland Rotary Club, women's boot camps, running clubs, walking rugby, archery and much more.

We have developed partnerships with the local Middlesbrough schools and colleges to provide opportunities for young people to be involved in the game of rugby in playing, coaching, officiating and volunteering. We provide age grade rugby from U7-U17s as well as male and female adult teams and competitive rugby opportunities for other members of the community through walking rugby. The RFU continue to use our club for district and county development squads.  

However, our rugby club is much more than a set of teams, a facility, or a social venue. It is a family.

Covid-19 Impact

• In March, Covid-19 brought the 2019/2020 rugby season and our community and hospitality activities to a halt. With no revenue from match days, functions, facility hire, or community events and inability to attract sponsorship, we have found ourselves unable to meet our demands and are at risk of going out of business. 
• The past 8 months have pushed the club to its absolute limits. Despite cutting all non-essential services, we are currently running at a £1,500 per month deficit for things such as utilities, insurance, grounds maintenance, sanitation, cleaning of equipment and security. 
• Our bar staff voluntarily resigned to ease the financial burden on the club for which we are eternally grateful
• As our building was not rateable, we have received no grant support and the local council would not support us from the discretionary pot they had available.
• We have exhausted our cash reserves which had been saved and earmarked to develop the mini pitch.

The situation is now desperate and it is no exaggeration to state that without your support, we may cease to exist!

How will we spend the money raised

• First and foremost, it will help keep the club afloat! 
• We have invested heavily in the grounds and clubhouse in recent years as a home for our family, players, supporters and guests. In order to maintain our fantastic club over and above the running costs. We need to ensure we have all the correct signage based on the latest guidelines, we need to increase our training equipment to reduce any sharing to a minimum, the new covid secure touch game has meant the pitches need to be repainted and all equipment must be washed and sanitised regularly. 
• We need to be able to be innovative in our activity and engagement, requiring additional equipment and adapt equipment we do have. 
• We need to ensure the pitches; drainage system and lighting are all in working order for use now and when we can resume in December.

Any donations received will be used to undertake the works highlighted above, so please donate if you can and pass on to friends, families, friends and colleagues to help spread the word.

Use our reward scheme

We have reached out to local businesses and we have been overwhelmed at what has been offered as rewards for donations and pledges. Remember to sign up for updates to be notified of our new and exclusive rewards which we are adding to as often as we can. You can see the list of rewards down the side of this page ---->

Simply select a reward and enter your pledge value or if you just wish to donate, click the donate now button at the top of the page.

Be Acklam Active and keep Acklam Active!

We appreciate that this is a tough time for everybody and if you are not able to support us financially, THAT'S OKAY! There is still a way you can help.

We have started a movement (bad pun intended). Keep yourself active and join our Acklam Strava group, we are using our founding year and setting a cumulative target of moving 1976 miles (the year we formed)! by foot or by bike. Join the group and post your social media with #Acklamactive to spread the word of what we are doing and get people to donate. Set your own individual targets and see how far you can take the club.

Please stay tuned on our social media for updates on Activity and how your donations are making a difference.

This project successfully funded on 5th January 2021