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Welshbockers secure community funding

Written by Matt // July 8, 2010 // 0 Comments

It’s only taken nearly 4 years but after a long and drawn out battle, local jumping stilts club, The Welsh Bockers, have been awarded £945 from the Sport Relief Community Cash scheme.

As founding member of the club I can’t really express how important this is for us. As a new action sport activity and one that is very popular with kids we have tried every avenue to get support and funding since we started. Every single time the door has been slammed shut in our faces. At one stage I even wrote to the Heritage Minister who had the nerve to simply reiterate what the sports council of wales had already told me. I wonder if he actually read my letter at all!

Anyway that is now in the past thanks to Sport Relief and the Community Foundation in Wales who have managed this funding scheme. What are we doing with the money? Well that’s simple. For the past 3 years we have visited events and festivals all over the UK where we put on displays, demonstrations and most importantly taster sessions where the public can have a go on a pair of jumping stilts. Up until now, the stilts used for taster sessions have been lent by our club members where often the stilts are old or have been modified to suit the person specifically and not really ideal. Plus we don’t think it’s fair to ask our members to lend their stilts which they’ve paid between £115 and £300 for.
This money is going to purchase 6 pairs of stilts (3 kids model and 3 adult model) and accompanying wrist and knee pads.

It also means we can start running public sessions, in the safety of a leisure centre hall with gym mats and crash mats. Never before has something like this been possible and we are really happy that this now gives virtualy anyone in South Wales the opportunity to take things beyond the taster sessions and really have a go at this exciting new activity without spending £150 on a pair of stilts.

The Welsh Bockers has around 30 members with a branch in Cardiff and Swansea with ages from 11 years to 34. Five of it’s members are from the Whitchurch and Llandaff North area and we are quite well known locally.

Last weekend we were in Sheffield where we featured at Cliffhanger, the weekend before we were at Ty Hafans Fun Day in their Sully Hospice and the weekend before that we featured at the Cardiff Outdoor Action Show. It’s a busy summer!