Keep Rushmoor Artistic Swimming Club in the pool

Aim

We are appealing for financial support to help us survive and recover from the COVID19 pandemic and to be able to continue our training.

Who are we?

Here at Rushmoor our swimmers, both boys and girls, start from as young as 6 years old and begin their artistic swimming journey in our waterkids classes. These lessons help them build the foundations needed for the sport and help develop the love and drive they need. 

Once they progress and become a member of the main club we provide a pathway for them all, from learning the basics to competing internationally at masters level, and everything in between. We even have some of our swimmers giving back to the club by becoming coaches themselves and passing their wealth of knowledge onto the younger generation.

The impact of Covid-19 and why we are fundraising

Since the start of the global pandemic we have faced many challenges including the permanent closure of our home pool (Farnborough Leisure Centre), the loss of several hours of water time due to other venues still being closed, and needing to travel further afield to pools that are deep enough for us to do our sport safely. 

Due to Covid-19 we were also not able to host our usual fundraising events, one of which is our popular Christmas show where we get to show case all of the swimmers hard work to the local community, family and friends. 

All these issues have taken a heavy toll on our finances and so we are undertaking a fundraising programme to put back what we have lost over the past year. This money will help us to source more pool time which will enable us to host more open days, public events and shows and enable us to remain financially accessible to those who may be struggling as a result of the pandemic. This fundraising will help us provide our local community and surrounding areas with the opportunity to do synchronised swimming at all levels, to not only participate in a key health and exercise activity but to also allow our members to dream and achieve their potential.

We have set an ambitious but a much needed target, so your help and donations are extremely important to us!

How the crowdfunding will help us

The finances that we raise through crowdfunding will help us to:

• Retain the use of our pools so that we can provide a tailored programme for all our swimmers and ensure all their needs are met.
• Expand our land based programme to enable us to provide the training and skills the swimmers need to perform in the water.
• Cover increased expenses to remain a Covid safe environment to train in
• Retain the services of our skilled and professional coaching team who have gone above and beyond during the Covid pandemic. The coaching team will also help us to ensure all our swimmers are on track for their synchronised swimming development 
• Provide a place for our swimmers to enjoy doing what they love and create those lifelong bonds with their teammates and friends.  
• Training our parents/senior swimmers to be lifeguards for our sessions. This will help us save money in the future and give our parents/swimmers a valuable life skill they can take with them. 
• Keep our membership costs to an affordable bracket, so that we can ensure to remain an inclusive club in all manners of the word.

Ways you can help us

There are many ways you can help us to meet our target 

• Donate to our campaign
• Share with all your family, friends, co-workers and work places
• Share with businesses both local and further afield
• Offer a prize or reward that we can add as part of the fundraising appeal
• Set up a "multiplier" crowd funder and help us raise money with your own fundraising activity and pledge for your donations to be linked with ours

We are so proud of how all our swimmers and coaches have clubbed together and supported one another in this difficult time, and we cannot wait to be back to proper training and competing.

The past year for us

At the point of the first lockdown our 12U and 13-15 competitive swimmers had just competed at the National Age Group Championships and were busily preparing for their next competition. Our 15+ senior swimmers were also ready and raring to go for their National Championship competition in April, which is one of the biggest competitions in the artistic swimming calendar. Unfortunately they didn't get to compete as we were forced to close our doors. 

All swimmers continued to train together online and find other ways to keep up their fitness. We also hosted quiz nights and fun online sessions to keep all swimmers engaged with each other and their coaches. 

When we were briefly able to get back to the pools in 2020 we found ourselves having to more than double the amount of pool time we booked, even though the swimmers themselves were not getting any more time in the water, due to the increased distancing needed during sessions. It was amazing to see all the swimmers and coaches together again, but unfortunately it was short lived as the next lock down soon hit and we were back to virtual meet ups and training sessions.

LETS GO RUSHMOOR !

This project successfully funded on 8th July 2021