Please Support Barnstaple Swimming Club

Aim

Our amazing swimming club is looking for your support! We are asking our wider community to help us in this time of need.

Why we are fundraising…..

• Like so many sports clubs Barnstaple Swimming Club has suffered significant financial losses due to the pandemic.   Our crowdfunding appeal aims to secure much needed funds and now pools can re-open, we want to be there to continue offering our community the opportunity to swim, improve overall wellbeing and keep active in a safe environment. 
• We believe that swimming not only delivers far reaching physical and mental health benefits but at BSC we aim to develop and nurture lifelong skills, teaching a generation how to aspire to achieve goals and targets whether that is in the water, coaching, teaching, officiating or volunteering.

Who are we?

The Club has a long history, being set up in 1932. Over the last 89 years, hundreds of local children have been taught to swim and the Club has gone from strength to strength throughout the decades.

The Club originated in the Rock Park Outdoor Baths and quickly gathered momentum with members enjoying all aspects of the sport from learning to swim, progression into Competitions, Water polo, Lifesaving and Diving.

Thursday is our main Club evening whereby we hire the whole pool with the coaches/teachers/swimmers in each session all working together with enthusiasm creating a real “buzz” and “feel good“ atmosphere. 

We are the largest Swimming Club in North Devon and a feeder club to larger Clubs in Devon. We have achieved Swim Mark status and members of Swim England Association.  All coaches/teachers follow this programme under the guidance of the Club’s Head Coach Jack Hutchens. 

Head Coach Jack Hutchens: 

Jack's and all the coaches commitment to training is a continuous inspiration to the swimmers.

Over the years swimmers from the club have amassed great achievements including five swimmers who have competed at British Nationals including two medal winners and seven swimmers who qualified and swam at the English Nationals.  We also have many swimmers who qualify every year for regional and county championships.  

These achievements are the result of a tremendous amount of hard work and dedication from our coaches both past and present, our athletes and their parents and a lot of support from our volunteers who give up their time to help the club operate.  We want to continue to inspire our swimmers of all abilities to be the best that they can be.

Water Polo has always been played by members of Barnstaple Swimming Club at the North Devon Leisure Centre.

Teams from under 13 to Senior have regularly competed in the Devon League. Several players have represented Devon, some of whom have then joined other Devon Clubs for more training and represented them in regional and national competitions. Most recently Tom Hutchens played for the GB under 19 team.

We are very pleased that the new Tarka pool will continue to offer deep all over water polo pitches but will need to raise funds towards new equipment and to get the game up and running again. We would like to put several of our entirely voluntary coaching staff through their Swim England qualifications which also costs quite a lot for each member.

So how did the Covid-19 pandemic affect us?

Lockdown 1 shut our home pool. As a result, we were a swimming club without a swimming pool. We were lucky enough in the summer to land train and swim at our local beach and even managed some open water swimming up on Exmoor, but we drew the line at this in Lockdown 2 & 3, as it was a bit on the cold side.

During this time the swimming club waived all monthly fees which has had a significant impact on the clubs finances.

BSC Swimmers at an open water competition on Exmoor                                

Now we are looking forward to going back to swimming but we still have to deal with the ‘double whammy’ of;

•  increased hire costs, 
•  reduced swimmer numbers per session as a result of social distancing.  

  These factors have resulted in an increase in our costs and a reduction in our income.

Recovery and Rebuilding

Barnstaple Swimming Club’s focus will always be on what is best for the swimmer. In competition and training we understand that attitude matters and it’s important to us to role-model the supportive, inclusive attitudes we want to see from our squads. 

Being part of Barnstaple Swimming club means more than just training, here is one of our youngest squad members Ted explaining what he enjoys most about being part of the club.

We also need to look to the long-term. We understand the vital role that clubs like ours play in developing the swimmers, coaches, officials and lifeguards of the future.  We want to keep doing this, and we remain committed to keeping costs to our swimmers as low as possible. 

Without the financial support of our community we cannot sustain ourselves indefinitely in a world where Covid-19 restrictions remain in place.

What will these funds be used for?

The overall objective is to rebuild the club in a safe manner, without the need for increased costs/demands upon parents.

The funds raised will therefore focus on achieving the following objectives….

1. Funding equipment that supports keeping our swimmers safe during training, as recommended by Swim England.

2. Helping to keep our training fees at manageable levels for all current and future members.

3. Funding alternative training means, where Pool time is not available.

4. Funding new equipment.

So why is helping us important?

If you  recognise the value that volunteer-run grass-roots sports clubs like ours add to communities, the wider leisure sector and to the health, wellbeing and all-round development of the athletes we train, then we hope you’ll support us.

Your donations will help us to change the way we have to work due to Covid 19.

Your donations will help us rebuild our club, into a place where swimmers can come to train, develop and be safe.

In a few short years the club will reach a major milestone – it’s 90th birthday in 2022 which we hope will coincide with the opening of a new pool in Barnstaple. We need your help now to make sure that we are here to celebrate it, and in doing so celebrate the achievements of all our swimmers and volunteers over the years. 

Our reward to our supporters

We’re not just asking for money for nothing, we’ve come up with pledge rewards so that we can say thank you for your help at what is a difficult time for us all.

Please don’t think that these rewards are only on offer to club members.

Some rewards will most likely appeal more to club members; however there are plenty of other options that will appeal to everybody.

For as long as we’re able, we will keep adding new reward levels, so please keep checking our page.

This project successfully funded on 11th May 2021