Who are we?
We are a grass roots rugby club based in North Nottinghamshire and founded in 1952 when the Trent side power stations were being built.
Traditionally Retford is not a rugby town and even more so now that the schools (Academies) have ceased to include rugby in their curriculum. Consequently we have had to try and provide our own membership base by running a Junior and more recently a Women (Ladies) section.
Our Clubhouse was built in 1979 and consists of 3 post war bungalows bolted together and comprising a Club-room, Bar, Kitchen, Ladies & Gents facilities, 4 small changing rooms, a communal shower area, and small referees changing room and is now not fit for purpose.
We badly need to improve our facilities to attract new players and retain existing and we have for a number of years been trying to provide a new replacement Clubhouse, hopefully a proposal is slowly coming to fruition to achieve that aim.
We own our grounds and this has been achieved by careful management of finances and persuasive negotiation
Why are we crowdfunding?
To improve our standard of play we need to train during the winter months and in 2007 we installed 4 light standards with 2 sets of floods on each along one side of our training pitch.
We could only provide them down one side as there are overhead power cables running along the other side. However half a lit pitch is better than none and they have proved very useful over the years but costly to run.
As energy costs are a major contributor to our annual overheads we are constantly looking at ways to reduce them. This year we are looking to install LED lights onto the existing standards to replace the sodium ones. Not only will these give us a substantial saving on running costs but will also provide a better lighting level.
A local electrical contractor has provided a quotation to replace the existing lights and we would like to accept their offer.
We applied for a grant to Sport England through their "Movement Fund" and they have granted us an award of £5,000 providing we can raise the remaining monies.
This crowdfunding appeal is to help us achieve our target of the additional funds.
How we’ll spend the money raised
All the money raised will be spent on providing the floodlights.
We have obtained a quote from a local Electrical Contractor for the complete replacement of the existing light fittings, so only one contract to deal with which makes life easier and the hopefully reduced running costs will contribute to reducing our overall running costs for the Club and enable us to keep subscriptions at a reasonably affordable level.
Community impact
East Retford RUFC are an integral part of Retford society and assist other charities when asked to provide volunteers.
We currently have around 75 Juniors comprising all age groups and they generally meet and train on Sunday mornings. The older ones utilise the floodlights during the winter and train on the same night as the seniors but at the opposite end of the training pitch. The Women train on a Thursday evening.
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!