Linslade Crusaders - Save Our Club

Aim

To raise £20,000 to secure the future of the swimming club which is in doubt as a result of the Covid 19 pandemic.

Thank you!!!!

We have just reached our target!!!! A massive thanks to all of you that have pledged!! The response has been overwhelming! This is such an amazing achievement!! We still have 10 days to go so keep sharing and pledging!! Thanks and thanks and more thanks!!! 

Week 4 Update

Thanks so much to everyone who has supported our campaign so far, we are not far off our target. Please continue to pledge and share our campaign! Go Crusaders!

Thanks to Rebecca and Louis our Club Captains who have shared their enthusiasm & support for our club.

Who are Linslade Crusaders

Linslade Crusaders is a swimming club based in Leighton Buzzard, Beds. We have over 180 members ranging from age 5 to 65. We are an extremely friendly club with a healthy competitive spirit combined with great team work and a lot of fun. Swimming is an amazing sport for kids from all backgrounds to come together and be part of the swimming family that promotes a healthy lifestyle, an escape from their norm. Swimming is an amazing stress reliever and confidence booster.   

The Clubs History

Linslade Crusaders Swimming Club was started following an unsuccessful attempt to form a training squad for swimmers in the South Bedfordshire area.  At that time there was, and still is, a high demand for learn to swim lessons,  and as a result water time was obtained on Sunday afternoons at Lewsey Pool in Luton, and under the supervision of Colin Moore, the original Crusaders Club Coach, with the assistance of Colin and Pauline Swaithes and Mr and Mrs Tom Nairn,  the Crusaders Self Help Learn to Swim scheme was launched. From this grew our current club, which at the moment has a membership of approaching 180. 

Linslade Crusaders was one of the original founding members of the Chiltern League which was formed in the late 1980s to give the young, inexperienced novice swimmers the experience of competitive swimming. 

In 1996 Linslade Crusaders took the decision to enter two further leagues, the Home Counties and the prestigious National Speedo League. The club currently swims in not only the Chiltern League,  division 1, junior league division 2 but also Arena League 3. 

We have swimmers represented at County, Regional and National Level.

Our Club is very proud of its beginnings, especially its Learn to Swim scheme, where many of our current swimmers started their swimming journey. This demonstrates the loyalty of the Club’s swimmers to the Club, coaches and teachers. 

Some of our youngest swimmers

Some of our older swimmers

How Covid 19 has affected the club

Since swimming in indoor pools ceased in March it has been particularly hard for our swimmers. They normally train anything from 1 hour a week to 10 hours a week. And then there are galas and competitions on top of this.  We know that many of our swimmers really miss the opportunity to train and to meet their extended ‘family’ at swimming. 

The club took the necessary step to reduce club fees to a minimum as we couldn't offer them any pool time. We continued to pay the coaches throughout lockdown to reflect their continued to support of the club and to ensure we ready to resume training as soon as pools reopened. 

In light of the current Covid situation sport is more important than ever to ensure that children are exercising regularly and getting out and about . A lot of children are also struggling with mental health issues due to the Covid 19 pandemic and being kept indoors and away from school, friends and family and their normal routines. This is why it is so important that we as a club can reach out to our existing members and also invite new members to the swimming family we have at Linslade Crusaders.   

Keeping the Crusaders Spirit Going

During lockdown we engaged as much as possible with our club members to ensure that they still felt part of the 'family' by providing online land training sessions, swimming videos, online mentoring with coaches and q & a sessions with past swimmers.

Fund Raising in our Community

We also raised a total of £1910 for CHUMS a local charity that supports young people with mental health and emotional wellbeing. We have been challenging our swimmers to walk, run and cycle as much as possible and then we have asked them to log their steps. We are trying to walk out swimmers around the world which is in fact 54783410 steps and in doing so raise money for CHUMS.  The swimmers have embarked on challenges along the way that the club have been setting, such as, cook a meal for you and your family and wash up!! Run your fastest 1km, how long can you hold plank for – 14 mins surprisingly. Draw a picture with your eyes closed. All these things to keep these kids busy as they would normally be in the pool.

Back in the pool

With a huge effort from our committee, it was fantastic news that finally we could get back into the pool from the 25th July, however due to the reduced lanes and the reduced numbers allowed in the pool under Swim England guidance and social distancing rules this coupled with increased charges from operators our fees have had to increase. For people on low income or furloughed this this might be the difference between their children continuing and having to give up this amazing activity.

Our Future Concerns

As a  self-sustaining club our worry is that we might lose some of these swimmers which it not only a loss to the individual but also could lead to a closure of our club which has strong and long standing roots in the community. All income generated covers overheads including pool hire, coaching fees, coaching equipment and maintenance costs. 

This time of year we would normally be organising our annual open meet, this is the clubs biggest fundraiser of the year and gets the whole club involved in everything from time keeping to raffles to making sandwiches for the officials. However due to Covid Swim England have postponed all licences for the coming future so we are therefore looking at every alternative we can to fund raise, but with social distancing measures in pace this is somewhat limited. 

2nd Lockdown due to Covid 19

This new lockdown is a real worry for our club we had just started some of the Level X racing and swimmers were really engaged and excited about it. 

Now with this 2nd lockdown due to Covid 19 the survival of our club is in doubt.  

Crusaders - Back to Swimming Campaign - Save Our Club

We are therefore launching this campaign to keep this amazing club going so that kids get back to some sort of normal and enjoy the what Linslade Crusaders can offer. These additional funds will cover the increase in pool costs which will keep the club finically stable. We also want to help out those families that are on low income or furloughed.  

Please help us by sharing our page far and wide on all your social media - we need our 'crowd' to be huge. Every donation counts whatever the size.

Sport England Support

The good news is that we are hoping to get the support of Sport England. They have teamed up with Crowdfunder and launched a fund to help clubs - they will hopefully contribute up to 50% towards our target. 

Prize Draw Terms & Conditions:

The draw will take place on 31st December 2020 and be drawn at random by Sue Wright.

There are no cash alternatives for prizes.

This project successfully funded on 17th December 2020