Who are we?

Aireborough Gymnastics Club (A.G.C) was founded nearly 50 years ago, and it was initial based at Aireborough Grammar School in Yeadon, Leeds. After the Grammar school was demolished in 1989 to make way for new housing, the club moved to Benton Park School Rawdon. Due to building issues with Benton Park, which led to us not being able to have consistent lettings, we unfortunately had to leave taking all the equipment we had gathered over the years. In 2016 we took the plunge and moved the club into it’s own premises, where it could grow and thrive. At present the club has over 250 gymnasts which include recreational, display, competition girls and boys classes. The two directors of the club are Joanne & Charlotte, Joanne started at the club as young girl and did very well competing in Yorkshire competitions, she then worked her way up through the coaching qualifications. Her two children now attend classes and one has just taken her first step towards her coaching career. Charlotte also started with the club as a gymnast after watching one her friends at the classes and then she had to have a go herself and has never looked back. Her younger sister attended classes so she started to help out in those sessions, then she continued up the coaching & judging pathway. 

We have dedicated a lot of years to the club and it's members, we would love to try enhance the club and to give the club/gymnasts what it deserves.

Why are we crowdfunding?

We're trying to improve our facilities for the children that come to classes week after week. When we moved into our current venue 5 years ago we brought with us all our equipment and tried to make it fit. Our facility isn't spacious so we've had to be clever with how we've placed equipment in the gym,  especially in our bars area. We moved in to the building with a set of training uneven bars and a set of parallel bars, and made use of matting we had. (We’ve since added rings and a single bar. ) But we have never been completely satisfied with the set up and different levels of matting between the apparatus. It has also now come to the stage were we have some gymnasts that are too tall for our current bars and some that are wanting to learn skills for competition that need higher grade equipment. We need a set of competition uneven bars that are anchored to the floor which will allow our tallest gymnasts to train on bars, how they should be. We also need new one level continuous matting to run through the bars area, and to connect to the Parallel bars area.

We're also being told that our heater is on its last legs and the parts to fix if it breaks are either expensive or not available anymore due the age of it. We've been quoted £5,000 for a new heating system which will be more efficient than the current one we have in place, as being in an industrial unit it's cold most of the time in there.

How our project will be United by Birmingham 2022: With the 2022 Commonwealth games it was an inspirational games for gymnastics especially for the boys, to see them battle out to take the team gold medal and to see what it meant to them. With our new bars area we're looking to inspire and give motivation to our gymnasts to strive for bigger and more advanced skills, which we will be able to teach with our new set up. The girls will have a competition set of uneven bars which will not disadvantage them anymore when going to competitions, the boys will have a proper matting area under the P-bars which means we can work dismounts and we'll have suspended rings so they can work routines which will give them more competitions in the region. In our area the boys pathways are limited and we would love to work on that and give boys more of an opportunity in the sport.

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. If you want to run your own fundraiser to support us, 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!

How we’ll spend the money raised

The money that is raised for the club will go on the purchase and installation of a set of cabled uneven bars with FIG matting going underneath, which will continue to go under/around the Parallel bars that we already have and up to wall edge where our wall bars are. We will also be getting a set rings installed over the floor area which will hang from the steel supports in the ceiling, these will be on a pully system so the height can be easily adjusted and they can be lifted out of the way when they're not in use so not to take up the limited space we have. We have also been advised to get a new heater system which will be more efficient and more cost effective to run, as our current one is on it's last legs and if that does break classes wouldn't be able to run, at least not through winter! 

Costs

Equipment and installation £12,553.20

New heater system £5,000

Community impact

We have around 350 children that attend our gymnastics club each week, we run 6 days a week. We keep our fees as low as we can so our classes can be accessible to as many families as possible. Families travel from  as far  afield as Ilkley, Bramhope, Bradford to attend our sessions and we value the commitment they make for their children to attend. The club has been running for almost 50 years and we pride ourselves on the good reputation we have built up in providing fun, quality, affordable classes for all ages and abilities. We teach children from complete beginners up to competition level. We organise fun displays, competitions and award scheme for all gymnasts to take part in. And have pathways for our older gymnasts to take on volunteer roles with helping younger gymnasts and assist them in taking coaching qualifications. We have had gymnasts that have attended in the past that  have brought their children to our classes and now even the grandchildren of former gymnasts are now attending at the club, which is lovely to be a part of.