Guildford Hockey Club: Get Into Hockey

We are determined to help get children active after a year of isolation due to Covid-19. Hockey offers brilliant opportunities to keep healthy and have fun. Sport England and Crowdfunder are helping with this important mission and have at present a generous offer to match funding that supports sport and physical activity. We need your help to help the community – please support this important project.

All about Guildford Hockey Club:

Players, parents and supporters have been enjoying the sport and social life that thrives around hockey at GHC since 1912.  We have 9 Men’s teams, 6 Ladies’ teams, Mixed hockey, Back2Hockey, Flyerz (disability hockey) and a thriving Junior Section with 800 children from 5 to 18 years old.

Our vision is Great Hockey for Everyone. This means an environment where every single person is welcome and supported, whether they are playing, helping make the hockey happen or enjoying the sport through spectating.

Our values are Teamwork, Creativity, Passion and Respect.

Why we need support:

Last season, like every club around the country, Guildford Hockey Club was hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic. The three main areas where our club suffered are:

• loss in revenue 
• No chance to roll out our inclusion programme
• No gameplay for all our members 

Obviously the lockdown meant that sport was put on hold at the club.  One impact this had was that we were not able to run a third of our holiday camps which generate a huge source of income for us.  Furthermore, we had a 30% loss in subscriptions revenue and reduced income from our local partnerships.  On top of this, we had to cancel our summer hockey programme resulting in a loss of £12,000 in income.

As a result of this financial impact and the lockdown, Guildford Hockey Club was not able to roll out its programme to make hockey more accessible in the community.  Our vision at the Club is ‘Great Hockey for Everyone’ and we feel it is so important that this is not limited to paying members.  There will be many children in the local area who have not been introduced to hockey and now, coming off the back of a nationwide lockdown, is the perfect time to help these children get active and try a new sport.

Moreover, the other impact of Covid on our club was that not a single one of our members could play the sport they enjoy for many months.  While we are doing everything we can now to get everyone back playing safely, this project will also give our young members an opportunity to play even more hockey at their school.  It will be a chance to catch up for lost time.

About the project:

This new funding will help us provide Flyerz hockey (a nationwide effort to deliver hockey to persons with disabilities) and walking hockey as well as our biggest community; delivering hockey to primary schools across Waverley and Guildford. By focusing on sessions for Year 5 pupils each year, we can give every child the opportunity to play and enjoy this sport.

The schools project will help generate income to help the club recover by increasing membership and attendance on hockey camps.  This will go a long way to decreasing the impact of recent lockdowns.  It will also provide coaching roles for our staff who have been unemployed for a large periods of the last year.

Our goal is to raise £16,000 which will cover the cost of sending coaches to 12 schools, along with buying all the equipment needed. 

Project breakdown:

• Coach at 12 schools over a period of 22 weeks, with two sessions a week at each school.  At £25 an hour for coaches and travel, this would make the cost per school £1,100 and in total, £13,200.
• Buy more kit bags in order to coach at these schools.  4 full kit bags, at a cost of £2,400, will take the total cost of the project to £15,600.
• Any extra money raised will help support this project and allow us to coach at even more schools in the area.

The Covid pandemic has meant that sport has been put on hold and we know that many people cannot wait to get back to it.  At Guildford, it has meant that every age group has missed out on training and matches, and as a club we have not been able to put on all the camps that we usually do for the local community.

As a result, we believe now would be the perfect time to introduce this project and give every child across Godalming, Farncombe, Cranleigh and Guildford the opportunity to be active and play hockey. 

This is why your support will be so valuable and we appreciate every donation. Our target of £16,000 will fund the coaches and equipment needed to deliver hockey in every primary school in the local area.