Improvements to spectator areas and drainage

Aim

Our club is growing and we need to improve the facilities for the benefit of players, supporters and the local community.

Who are we?

Yarm Community Rugby Club is located near the town of Yarm in North East England. Established in 1997, the club has senior men's and women's teams and a strong youth set up with teams from under 7's tag up to under 14's. In the past the youth set up has produced a professional rugby player as well as representatives at County level rugby.

Community impact

The club has limited facilities but tries to give back to the community in a variety of ways. Firstly, and mainly, it provides health and wellbeing to local children and adults by partaking in rugby training sessions and matches throughout the year.

In addition to this the clubhouse is used for events such as birthdays and christenings and is also made available to Preston Cricket Club throughout the cricket season.

We currently host annual fireworks display which the local community attend and is a great attraction. Our location is ideally situated away from housing, so noise levels are low.

We also install and decorate mini-Christmas trees above local shops in Yarm High Street each year to provide a festive feel during the Christmas period.

During the pandemic our volunteers and players helped to deliver food parcels to those who could not leave their homes.

Why are we crowdfunding?

Over the past few years, and even through the Covid pandemic, we have grown as a club in terms of our rugby offering and our community offering and due to this, we need to improve our facilities.

One area where we have grown our club is with the introduction of a women’s team who are now in their second season playing league matches, having built up their knowledge and confidence training together and playing friendly matches.

We know from feedback that the introduction of this team has been of great importance to some of those taking part and has significantly helped their mental health. This has been seen as a welcomed addition to the community.

How we’ll spend the money raised

We want to spend the money creating a spectator area which will include a hard standing area and a facility which will provide toilets, food, drink and seating. We want this to be environmentally friendly and to provide a useful resource for the club and the community.

Improving our facilities by creating a supporters stand; an all-weather pitch side supporters' area and improved drainage will help to support our continuing growth and provide a valuable facility to both the members of the club and local community.

The benefit to the members and supporters is a clear improvement of facilities to provide a better match day experience.

Whilst the members and supporters are part of the local community this project will also benefit the wider community by establishing an area which can be used for community events, such as our annual fireworks display. This has increased in numbers year on year and this project will increase available space and therefore provide a greater number of people who can attend.

Also, by having a separate pitch side supporters' facility this frees up our club house for community use. 

This project is part of our plans to improve the overall club facilities which includes improving the drainage which has impacted on the club severely this season.

In order to make the project as environmentally friendly as possible we would like to include eco-friendly elements to the build, such as solar panels, ground source heating and a living wall.

Previous Crowdfunder

During Covid we used this same platform to raise funds to help with costs incurred and improve our grounds maintenance and facilities.

The previous project was a success and we achieved more than our original target which help the club enormously through Covid. We also now have much improved facilities and have the equipment needed to operate our own grounds maintenance which has reduced costs and allowed investment in other areas.

These crowd funding campaigns are extremely useful to sports clubs and we hope this campaign is as successful.

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. Create a fundraiser of your own. Use the button on our page to get started. Setting up your own page only takes a few minutes, and you won’t need any bank details. Just a fun idea!

This project successfully funded on 2nd August 2024