Who are we?
We’re Hastings Pirates, a community baseball club based in Hastings, East Sussex. Founded in 2017, we play in the Single A League of the British Baseball Federation.
Why are we crowdfunding?
We’re a volunteer-led, community club, and rely on the commitment and dedication of our players and supporters to survive. Sadly, our home field is currently in desperate need of repair – our home plate area (where the batter stands!), in particular, needs a proper surface to ensure player safety and improve quality of play. We also need to replace aging safety equipment like batting helmets and catcher head chest and leg protection, and basic playing gear such as fielding gloves and bats (the lack of this equipment represents a real barrier to accessibility, as most people who come and try baseball with us won’t have their own playing gear).
Additionally, while we’ve been offering adults the chance to play baseball – a mixed gender, multi-age sport – since our inception, delivering an important sport and leisure opportunity to the local community, we now want to give the young people of Hastings and beyond a chance to try the game. To do this – and to offer young people in an often deprived area valuable opportunities for physical activity, skill development, and personal growth, helping to boost their self-confidence – we need to buy and make available for use youth-sized equipment.
How we’ll spend the money raised
We need £6,500 to repair our home field, replace our aging safety equipment and adult playing gear, and buy equipment for our youth baseball programme. The good news is Sport England has generously agreed to match any funding we raise ourselves, up to a maximum of £3,250 - meaning this is the amount we need to raise.
Our proposed spending breaks down as follows:
Home Plate Development: £4000 for materials and labour to create a durable and safe home plate surface.
To help turn this...
...into a more durable surface that can withstand regular use for many seasons to come.
Safety Equipment: £600 for new helmets, catcher's protective gear, and other safety equipment.
Basic Playing Gear: £500 for fielding gloves, bats, and other essential equipment.
Youth Equipment: £1400 for youth-sized bats, gloves, helmets, and balls.
Community impact
Sport offers people – especially those living in an area like Hastings, which faces many social challenges – enormous benefits, such as improved physical and mental health, reduced chances of illness and disease, and the promotion of social interaction and community development.
Amongst young people, it can teach social skills, encourage personal development, and foster resilience, confidence, and teamwork. We believe baseball, as a mixed gender, multi-age sport, provides a uniquely accessible sporting opportunity, and with your help and generosity, will be able to bring this great game to as many people in our community as possible.
How you can play your part
There are four simple ways to help us reach our target, and make our baseball ‘field of dreams’ a reality!
1. Donate: Every contribution, no matter the size, makes a difference!
2. Spread the word. Share our project on your social media pages and tell as many people as possible to get behind us! The more people we reach, the more support we will get.
3. Offer rewards. If you’re a local business, help out by donating things we can offer to our supporters. We’ll be happy to share the news about your generosity!
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 to input any bank details. Just a great fundraising idea!