MASC Cost of Living Support

Aim

We hope to raise funds to support the club to continue to thrive and be able to operate despite the impact of the cost of living crisis.

Who we are?

Middlesbrough Amateur Swimming Club:

We have been operating for over 100 years and through that time have helped a massive number of swimmers to reach their full potential, developing skills that support them both in and out of the pool and we are continually proud of being able to be part of our young swimmers journey's. 

We operate and deliver sessions across two pools within the area as well as using the gym within the Neptune Centre to offer additional dry land training, to support and enhance the training of our swimmers.

We have over 100+ swimmers ranging from the age of 7 through to 65+ within a variety of squads that cater for all needs whether that's competitive swimming or the chance to stay active. We have members from across a variety of boroughs that travel to swim at the club, some training in excess of 15 hours a week in the pool. In addition to our swim Academy which welcomes those younger swimmers (4+yrs) who are  in the early stages of developing their swimming skills and love for the sport, through our Academy we offer a pathway into our competitive or active squads. All squads benefit from quality and structured coaching sessions delivered by our qualified coaching team.

We are lucky to have a number of parents who actively volunteer to support the club, from the day to day running  of the club to ensuring our galas run smoothly both for our own swimmers as well as those visiting from other clubs. We also have a variety of our older swimmers who actively support our Academy volunteering their time to help coach our young members who are just starting out on their swim journey, as well as the club in return investing in their development through supporting them to develop their skills and obtain formal swim teaching/coaching qualifications.

Swimmers achievements:

Since the return to competition from Covid the club has had a variety of successes through 2022/23, such as - 6 swimmers qualifying for English nationals in 2022, successfully winning 3 gold medals,  the club signing up to compete within the Arena league competition and coming first in our league, in addition to our Masters swimmers taking part in the Masters Inter Counties Team event. So far in 2023 we have had 38 swimmers qualifying for the Northumberland and Durham Championships, 4 new club records being achieved during the competition and 45 medals being obtained, as well as a number of swimmers qualifying for the North East Regional competition and two Masters swimmers qualifying to represent team GB in the World Aquathlon Championships in Ibiza.

We have also had a number of swimmers selected for county training and regional age group development programmes in 2022/23.

Our crowdfunding campaign:

The cost of living crisis has seen costs rise significantly and like many other grassroots clubs we are facing another big challenge within the current financial climate with significant increases in operating costs so soon after the last challenge faced through Covid. 

We run competitions, fundraise through galas and other activities to generate additional income for the club all of which helps to replace equipment as well as the development of the coaches and volunteers who help to run the club.

Through this campaign we are hoping to raise £10,000 and have a variety of rewards that will appeal to both swimmers and none swimmers, such as a Tetley Tea hamper, Open Water Coaching vouchers, various swim and sports wear, a spring clean hamper and much more.

We are grateful for any donations or purchases of these rewards we receive all of which will assist to continue to support the growth, sustainability and long term viability of the club.

Keep checking back on our rewards for new opportunities being added during the length of our campaign. Once our campaign has ended we will contact all those that have purchased a reward to arrange collection.

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How we’ll spend the money raised

Reaching our target will allow us to:

• Support costs to replace the current timing equipment to enable us to continue to run galas and raise funds to support the operating of the club.
• Support with the increased cost of pool hire due to the escalation of energy prices which will enable us to continue to offer the level of training sessions we do across all our squads.
• Keep training fees to a minimum to ensure it is affordable and we retain our swimmers.
• Continue to support through our hardship programme to enable swimming to be accessible to all.
• Support the development of our coaching team and volunteers to ensure our members are receiving the best support possible

Our previous crowdfunding campaign - 2021:

We previously ran a crowdfunding campaign in 2021 to support the operating of the club's return to pool activities as restrictions eased from the covid crisis, raising £12,345 in 28 days with the help of 133 supporters, which was fantastic. 

We are so grateful for everyone that supported the club with this campaign, both those that provided rewards and those that donated and purchased rewards as it enabled us to run our return to pool activities once they reopened without stretching our remaining reserves further, giving peace of mind to our swimmers, their families and our coaches.

Since then we have as a club continued to grow opportunities and relationships to help support the long term vision and financial viability of the club, to enable us to thrive, grow and not be reliant on future crowdfunding campaigns. 

We have built relationships with the local college and university to develop a student swim training and coaching offer. As well as restructuring the club earlier this year giving us a stronger offer to attract new and retain existing members through squads that meet all needs whether that's aiming for national qualifying times or swimming for fitness. 

This also allows us to increase the number of members bringing additional funds into the club through new memberships strengthening the clubs long term financial viability.

Community impact

We are conscious we operate in an area that has a number of challenges with high levels of social and economic deprivation. Our ability to be able to support through our hardship fund to families who may not financially be in a position to fully support their swimmer to reach their full potential is a priority, as we want swimming to be accessible to all. 

We are lucky that we have a strong relationship with the leisure centre provider operating the pools that we use, which enables us to offer a variety of sessions/hours to support the squads that we have.

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!

This project successfully funded on 29th June 2023