After becoming homeless for the first time in almost 100 years we have been given a large new home by Plumbase UK. We have this home for at least the next 10 years but the building needed a lot of work to convert its use into a working amateur boxing club. Also the boxing ring, punchbags etc belonged to the gym that was our previous home. This means that equiptment is also needed for our team of youngsters. Originally we had been assured that Sport England would largely fund this project through grants leaving a manageable short fall for us to find. However another impact of Covid for us was to find the grants that would indeed usually assist projects like ours became diverted to other Covid related/caused issues. Issues such as helping other "England Boxing" amateur clubs to pay thier rent/rates etc. When we started receiving negative results to our grant applications was when we were part way into this huge project. We had raised some funds ourselves, laboured where possible and made some impact. However I remember one evening standing in the building looking at the situation we were in with some despair. We had gone as far as we could under these circumstances. This was when we reached out to our local community for assistance,the response was breathtaking. Our town Rotary Club joined our plight as so did many other local trades people and businesses. We needed a full rewire, new ceilings, leaks fixed, male and female washrooms refurbished, decorating etc etc. The list was enormous. Then of course a lot of rather expensive equiptment is required too. The short story from here is that our new home is about a month from completion and thanks to the amazing people of our community is set to exceed our original expectations. It has become the largest ever community project in Bognor Regis. The purpose of this fundraiser is to enable the acquisition of the training equiptment. Boxing ring, leather punchbags etc. Once the lockdown situation allows us once again to work with our members we need to have these things in place for them. We have almost overcome the huge obstacles that threatened the existence of our club and with your help we know we can push over the finish line. We will celebrate our centenary and we will do it in our new home. Many kind thanks for any help that you can give ♥️???? obstacles
Our journey can be seen on our Facebook page "The Bognor Amateur Boxing Club"