Who are we?
Guildford Baseball & Softball Club has been thriving for over 30 years and is one of the oldest continuous baseball clubs in the South East of England, attracting players from miles around. The club has consistently grown the numbers of adults and youth learning and coming into the game, and we focus on having an inclusive and fun environment where everyone can learn and play these excellent sports.
Why are we crowdfunding?
Part of the success and the longevity of the club has been its excellent Youth program, working with local schools where we work with PE teachers to run discovery sessions during class time to our Youth program which builds players confidence and love of the game, and where we regular host Youth days for other SE England clubs.
But the Covid years created a 'firebreak' in this programme, as between 2020-23 schools were either closed or unable to run sessions from outside of the school. This has created a big gap in age ranges in our Youth programme, and has also meant we've had to start from scratch to rebuild the schools and youth program in the post Covid years. Schools are also under cost pressures and increasingly can't afford the very small donation to the club we usually ask in exchange for these sessions
We're fundraising to help buy more equipment to support our Youth program, to help develop our pitch at Christ's College school in Guildford to make it a better mixed-used Youth and Adult pitch and a better home for the Youth program, and to fund more school discovery sessions and even to try and get local schools to include baseball, softball and tee ball on their curriculum.
How we’ll spend the money raised
1 - We currently have a temporary backstop fence at our Christ's College site and want to either work with the school on a permanent backstop fence, or a removable fence that allows us to create a better playing field and a safer environment for Youth players.
2 - We would also like to adapt this field so it can more easily be altered between Youth and Adult field dimensions, and buy new removable fencing for the field lines and outfield to protect players and spectators.
3 - We'll also invest in new Youth equipment to support our Youth team and schools program, and if we hit the stretch goals of our target will look to donate some equipment to local schools that want to develop baseball on their PE curriculum.
Community impact
We want to increase participation in sport in the local community - baseball, softball and tee ball are very easy, inclusive sports that can be played by people with a wide range of abilities and across mixed gender teams.
As well as promoting healthy outdoor activities, it is also a sport that has a strong social aspect, and builds confidence and social skills with young players in ways in which many other sports - focused more on leagues, results and with single gender or ability teams - miss out.
We believe that baseball, softball and tee ball have a very low entry level regardless of ability or gender, and as such are genuinely sports for all which are exciting an rewarding for youth players.
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!