Help Silvermere Gymnastics replenish losses

Aim

Our continued closure due to the Covid-19 Pandemic has left us struggling, please help to get us back on track!

The global COVID-19 pandemic has created a very uncertain landscape for millions of sports clubs, making it very challenging for them to survive. We are one of those and we need your support!

Who are we?

Established in September 2017 as a two man team, Silvermere Gymnastics is incredibly proud to now have over 650 weekly gymnasts, aged 18 months - 16 years. In addition we employ over 25 members of staff, and have arguably become a key part of the local community. 

We are proud to be a community focussed recreational club. We strive for inclusivity and want for our club to be a happy and positive place for all to feel welcome. Gymnastics is a sport which enhances health and wellbeing; promoting fitness, discipline, focus and teamwork within a safe and fun environment. 

From just 18 months, our preschool classes are a wonderful way of introducing young children to developmental, fun exercise- exploring balance, co-ordination, spatial awareness, imagination and social skills as well as providing an environment for parents and carers to be able to connect with others and build friendships and support. 

We are proud of our dedicated coaching team and want to be able to provide the opportunity for young people to further develop skills and careers. We have a junior leaders’ scheme for gymnasts aged 14+, and also run an apprenticeship scheme. All these are properly accredited and the club funds all coaching qualifications for our young team = investing in the future. 

Great though our venue is, it is height restricted and our long-term goal was to have a double storey venue which would allow space for equipment including a full sprung floor and foam pit. In addition, a relocation would allow us the extra capacity to expand our SEN class offering as well as other speciality classes. 

We hope to provide the opportunity for more people, from young children to adults, to become active and to instil a positive impact on longer term health and wellbeing. Our purpose in moving to a new facility is to offer these fantastic and formative experiences to more, including more specialised classes for boys, adults and people with disabilities. 

How has Covid-19 affected us?

The beginning of 2020 saw us finalise plans to move into a bigger unit, however Covid-19 had other ideas. 6 months' closure (and counting) has struck us back in lost revenue. Covid-19 has proved a devastating struggle. Our initial six-month closure from March 2020 resulted in a total loss of income. We did what we could to explore new revenue streams, offering Live Zoom Classes and Outdoor Sessions as soon as allowed, selling merchandise and running competitions; but the running costs in rent alone meant we quickly accumulated debt.

When we were able to reopen indoors in September our capacity was reduced by up to 18 children per hour and there were lots of additional running costs in order to ensure we were operating in a Covid-19-safe manner.  

These changes have seriously affected our plans to relocate our gym into a bigger space, which was needed pre-Covid due to demand. With the enforced limited capacity this bigger space has become even more essential to be able to offer more young people in Elmbridge gymnastics classes. The move would also allow us the opportunity to open our gym up to gymnasts aged 16+ thus lengthening the relationship with our gymnasts and deeply instilling active and healthy habits.

And now we once again face closure..

How will we use the money raised?

We are crowdfunding so that we can replenish some of the savings that were lost due to our closure. This will contribute to getting us back on track with our relocation and thus the goals we had set as a community club. 

Sport England Partner Funding!

This Crowdfund is part of Sport England’s "Active Together" match funding. If we reach 50% of our goal Sport England will add to the money we raise to make our total even bigger! 

This is an all or nothing fund bid, so if we don’t make it to our target amount, we won’t receive anything. Please give what you can to help us reach our goal!

Prizes and Rewards

As a thank you for donating, we have some great incentives on offer and all involved will have the chance to become part of the bricks and mortar that make up the Silvermere Gymnastics community family. Please note if you choose to donate anonymously you will unfortunately be excluded from any incentives or draws.

Thank you for reading, please donate and please share our cause! 

A huge thank you from everyone at Silvermere Gymnastics

This project successfully funded on 12th February 2021