Who are we?
We are a Community Amateur Sports Club based in Wimborne, Dorset, playing hockey with a thriving junior section, 3 ladies and 2 mens teams.
Our home pitch at Queen Elizabeth’s School, Wimborne was laid in 2005 and is at the end of its life. We are one of many users to have hired the pitch over the years from Dorset Council who currently manage the leisure facilities at the school - with the school operated and site owned by Initio Learning Trust. During this time our club has grown, with more children and adults joining as members and participating in hockey for sport and exercise.
Why are we crowdfunding?
In 2022, users of the leisure facilities and the Trust were informed by Dorset Council that they would be withdrawing from managing the QE Leisure site. As part of the withdrawal process, the Council agreed to contribute £150,000 towards the cost of a pitch replacement. However this has left a funding gap of over £125,000.
We hope the work to the pitch will begin this summer (2023). However without funding towards the gap, users will be relying on leasing arrangements. We fear these additional fees will increase costs for players and local people to access their local pitch, making it less accessible to play a variety of sports at competitive and amateur levels. Additional costs not only threaten maintaining current Club member numbers, but also our expansion plans.
How we’ll spend the money raised
Wimborne Wayfarers Hockey Club has therefore started a fundraising campaign, with the local community, businesses and pitch users invited to participate, so that we can help maintain this important facility for sport and local people to access.
Our initial target is to fundraise £30,000 towards the cost of the pitch.
Our junior training and squads currently start from Under 10s, with some of our players selected at County Level and squads regularly represented at annual South West regional finals
Community impact
This will help reduce the ongoing costs associated with bringing hockey to the East Dorset community, which include bringing hockey offerings, such as Walking Hockey for the older generation and Hockey Heroes for under 8s, to parts of the community we do not currently reach.
Our ladies section covers 3 different leagues, offering players of all abilities the chance to get involved
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!
Please support hockey and the provision of a local Astro pitch as an option for sports and exercise in your local community, and reduce the funding gap by donating to this Crowdfunder.