Sparsholt CC - Changing Room Refurbishments

Aim

Refurbish and modernise our clubhouse toilet & shower facilities to be more appropriate and welcoming for both male and female players

Who are we?

We are a local community village cricket club established in 1929, with c.300 members, including c.160 junior players (aged 7–17yrs), 4 senior teams and a growing girls & women's section. Our membership is culturally diverse and we attract families, new players of all abilities and a whole community of supporters to our Club. We also regularly host Hampshire Over 50's and Over 60's matches with their Captains being members of our Club.

The Club prides itself on being inclusive and runs upon the work of a team of dedicated volunteers providing leadership, administration, coaching, umpiring, team management, scoring and grounds maintenance.

Why are we crowdfunding?

This project is to replace our dilapidated showers and toilet areas within both changing rooms which are no longer fit for purpose, and not appropriate for male or female players.

We continue to grow our girl's and women's teams, but we need a facility that makes both our own female players and female visitors feel welcome and inclusive. When we host girls / women's matches, there is currently only one single communal toilet that is shared by all female players, team staff and officials.

Our clubhouse is used throughout the year, and daily for training, matches, club and community activities from April to September. However, the toilet and shower facilities in our home and away changing rooms do not match the quality of the ground and have not been upgraded since the clubhouse was built in 1980.

We take great pride in the standard of our facilities both on and off the pitch, and in recent years have raised funds to improve the outdoor playing facilities, improve the social spaces within the pavilion and added solar panels to reduce our energy costs. This bathroom facility upgrade is our next priority well overdue.

How we’ll spend the money raised

Anyone who has renovated their own home will know how expensive it is to refurbish one bathroom, let alone 2. This funding will allow us to completely gut the bathrooms in each changing room and replace with clean, efficient, modern, and gender-appropriate facilities.

Community impact

By making these improvements to our facilities, we believe we can attract more girls and women to the club and be more confident to host home matches for female teams. In turn this should promote more female inclusivity for the game.

With a culturally and gender diverse membership, and hosting matches at all ages and levels of the game, we are aware that visitors typically choose not to use our current shower facilities. We want to provide modern appropriate bathroom facilities where young players and adults, male or female, feel comfortable and secure with privacy and hygiene.

Also, from a sustainability perspective, modern facilities will allow us to use less water and implement more efficient heating.

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!

Funding method

Keep what you raise – this project will receive all pledges made