The Suffolk Vikings Ski Race Team are pleased to announce that they have been awarded a grant of £10,000 from Sport England to invest in new equipment, coaching and facilities to help the team continue to achieve its goals of providing ... high quality ski race training and making Ski racing accessible to children and adults throughout Suffolk.
The team are based at the Suffolk Ski Centre in Wherstead, Ipswich, but are an independent club run and managed entirely by volunteers, and until now funded through its own subscription fees and fundraising efforts.
The grant funding is being provided by Sport England, a body that receives both lottery and government funding to encourage participation in sport and improve the quality of sports facilities around England.
“With this funding we will be able to invest in a new purpose built training classroom, as well as equipment and training for current and new coaches. Sport England recognised the work being done by the club to try to make ski racing accessible to as many as possible, and the new equipment that this grant will fund allows us to continue to grow and develop the club's facilities” said Simon Levene, Funding Manager for the club.
This grant follows significant growth of the club over the past five years with membership having grown from around thirty to over one hundred in that time, and is the latest achievement in developing the club to make the sport as accessible to as many participants as possible. The club have already begun work on installing the new facilities, and expect to have everything in place by Christmas of this year.
Graham Cuthbert, club Chairman commented “I am delighted that the club has been recognised in this way, everyone who contributes to the club does so on a voluntary basis, including the coaches and committee, and we are all excited about the opportunities this funding creates to help towards our goal of encouraging new young racers to try out this sport.”