Sport England: Active Together has provided £2,000 of match funding
Get Our Community Bowling
Sheffield, South Yorkshire, United Kingdom
Aim
We're restoring our second 'community green' to make Meersbrook Park Bowling Club a vibrant, accessible and successful community resource.
Who are we?
Meersbrook Park Bowling Club has a rich history and was one of Sheffield's first park bowling greens, established in 1907. Over the years, the club has been very successful competitively, producing a number of national champions. In recent years the club saw a drop in membership and we are now working hard to recover and build resilience so that we can, once again, be a place for competition, leisure and pride for the local community.
Bowling in the beautiful surroundings of the club is unquestionably a contributor to well-being and we want to ensure that the benefits of bowling at Meersbrook Park can be accessed by many more people for many more years to come.
We are at the start of our journey to restore and revive our club and bring it back to its former glory!
Why are we crowdfunding?
Covid 19 had a major impact on the club's membership and income from bowling competitions. In 2023, we embarked on our project to revive the Club. We secured aditional funding from Sport England and Yorkshire Sport, increased our membership by over 600% and, importantly, ensured the Club could move forward on a more secure financial basis. During 2023, we also saw how much our local community can benefit from engaging with the Club and we now want to engage with more community groups and give them the opportunity to play bowls.
Our recruitment drive exceeded all expecations and a group of enthusiasts set about working on our second 'community green' so that we can better cater for the increased numbers and support players of varying abilities and physical capacities. We've made progress already but need additional resources to develop the playing surface, improve our facilities, deliver coaching and purchase new equipment to support our ambitions to embed this community asset.
How we’ll spend the money raised
We urgently need to:
- bring our second green back into use to allow us to provide bowling for increased numbers and cater for players of varying abilities and physical capacities.
- get more bowling equipment for new bowlers of different ages and physical capacities.
- provide coaching for Club and community group members.
- improve accessibility, seating and shelters to provide a more welcoming environment.
Community impact
You don’t have to be fit or healthy to play bowls - but its an activity that will help improve health and wellbeing. We believe that by being physically and mentally active, our members can be happier, healthier and more engaged with their community. Having the opportunity to bowl in the beautiful surroundings of Meersbrook Park supports personal well-being and can bring our community together.
Over the last year we have attracted many new members and community groups to enjoy all that our club has to offer. We want to build on that local engagement by providing a welcoming and vibrant club with the resources and facilities to make bowls an enjoyable and rewarding activity for our community. We want to change some of the preconceptions about bowls and believe that it is a sport that can be enjoyed by all age groups and by people from a wide range of backgrounds and abilities.
By gaining new members we can develop a real community resource and begin the revival of our teams to return the Club to past competitive glories.
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. Please don't delay if you would like to support us because momentum is key to our success!
2. Join us. Purchase a 'Discounted Individual Social Membership' for £40 (normally £55) or ‘Discounted Individual Competitive Membership’ for £55 (normally £70) from the Rewards. There are also opportunities to play in various competitive leagues.
3. Spread the word. Share our project on your social media pages and tell the world to get behind Meersbrook Park Bowling Club! The more people we reach, the more support we will get.
4. Offer rewards. If you are a local business, please get involved and donate things that we can offer to our supporters. As a minimum, we will give you a shout out and there may be other opportunities to promote your business.
5. If you would like to run your own fundraiser to support us, 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!
Please support us in any way you can so that we can revive Meersbrook Park Bowling Club and re-establish a vibrant and successful community resource.
Thank you.
This project successfully funded on 25th June 2024