We need to raise £20,000 to keep the club running and support those families hardest hit to continue to be able to swim.
Any extra money we raise will be ring-fenced as following:
Hackney Aquatics Club (HAC), an inner city East London Swim Club that prides itself on its strong community, welfare support and the diversity of its swimmers. We have a thriving Para squad of 10 swimmers, over 20% of swimmers are from black and ethnic minorities and we have a strong Masters squad with swimmers from 18 to 80 years.
We swim at local pools, Clissold Leisure Centre, London Fields Lido, Kings Hall, West Reservoir and the iconic London Aquatics Centre, home of the 2012 Olympic Games.
Hackney Aquatics Club (HAC) is an inclusive, encouraging and enjoyable competitive swim club, serving some of the most deprived London boroughs: Hackney and its surrounding areas – Islington, Tower Hamlets, Newham, Waltham Forest and Haringey. We believe that every young person in East London should have an opportunity to swim and our bursary scheme supports 1 in 5 of swimmers each month helping them towards their training costs, travel and gala entry fees.
HAC has a Young Volunteers Scheme, a mentoring pathway for young swimmers to become coaches. We also offer the opportunity for children to complete the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award scheme.
We also give to our community and have successfully raised money for the North London Hospice and Homerton Hospital with our community event challenges.
The Hackney Aquatics Club swimmers successfully compete on National, Regional and County level. In 2019 HAC swimmers won 5 medals at the British National Swimming Championships, 5 medals at the English National Championships and 29 medals at the Regional Championships.
HAC was awarded Hackney Club of the Year and Coach of the Year at the Hackney Sports Awards as well as awarded an inclusion award at the Hackney Youth Games. Our disability squad was invited and took part in the IPC World Para Swimming Championship.
Pre COVID-19 HAC was a self sustaining and thriving not for profit swim club run entirely by volunteers. Unfortunately lockdown has severely impacted our community as well as swimming costs and we will struggle to keep the club going.
Photo: James Shearman [email protected]
Swimmer numbers have fallen by more than 25% since March 2020. Many of our families have been hard hit financially, and we will lose more members if we are unable to offer support and concessions. When we were able to swim in the last year we had significantly reduced access to our pools and were unable to offer swimming to our whole membership, which further impacted our fee income. At the same time, social distancing requirements have significantly increased our pool and lifeguard costs. We expect this to be a similar situation when the pools open again. We have also not been able to run any swim galas for over a year, which generate vital income for the club.
Photo: James Shearman [email protected]
We need to raise £20,000 to keep the club running and support those families hardest hit to continue to be able to swim.
If we raise £5,000 (25%) then Sport England will pledge £10,000 (50%) leaving us to raise a further £5,000 (25%) in order to secure the match funding. We have to raise the full amount and get a minimum of 100 donations. Or for £1 you donate, Sport England will give another £1 until we reach our target.
Please help us to achieve our target so we can continue to support our community and keep everyone swimming. Or in the words of our swimmers (see video): 'We swim to stay fit', 'feel free and calm', 'gather our thoughts', 'be myself', 'socialising', 'for my mental health', 'if we can’t swim we miss friends', 'the feeling of the water', 'staying fit', 'competing', 'training', 'pushing myself'.
How You Can HelpOur swimmers represent one of the most diverse swim clubs in the UK: they are resilient, talented and determined. Our coaches are dedicated to keeping these relationships going but like all youth organisations, we’re facing a frightening gap in our income. We need our partners, funders, parents/carers and local communities to work with us. If we work together, we will survive.
You can help by spreading the word on social media, ask your family, friends, and neighbours. Any donation no matter how small or large will help.
Are you a local business that wants to help your local community? If so please get in contact with us on [email protected].
For press/media enquiries please contact [email protected].
Photo: James Shearman [email protected]
Our swimmers have passion, determination and the hunger to succeed. During both lockdowns the HAC swimmers have done their best to stay fit - doing land training in their rooms, on patios and in small gardens and local parks - and to keep engaged with the sport they love, through zoom calls with their swim friends and their coaches. And check out the video entirely made by our swimmers, featuring our swimmers.
In the first lockdown they raised money for Homerton Hospital with a drive and passion. And we’re ready to go at it again. This time each squad will set a group challenge and raise money together for their club/the Crowdfunder.
RP will organise a quiz night, AD1 has a tent/den building challenge, AD2 and Bronze, Silver, Gold have set themselves a weekly 'beat the distance' challenge (cycling or running).
NP squad cycles the distance from London to Tokyo (9,556km / 367km per swimmer) in the fundraising month.
The Masters will run a distance challenge (cycling, running or walking) from 15th until 28th March – setting a team distance of 600km in the first week and beating this distance in the second week. See Masters fundraising page here
The aim is to raise money together as a community but also to have fun with our swim friends behind the closed pool doors.
We will be posting regular updates and photos about the challenges. Watch this space.
Photo: James Shearman [email protected]
This project offers rewards in return for your donation. Please select a reward below.