January 3rd, 2011
If you thought Birtley AC was just about training Tuesday’s and Thursdays with the occasional race then think again. A lot of time and effort goes in behind the scenes by club members aiming to organise and improve the club for you. Birtley AC is run purely on a voluntary base, so you would think there would be very little running costs? Wrong. Costs for equipment, hiring of facilities, transport to races etc go into the thousands annually and the club has to find the money from somewhere. Some comes from annual/nightly subs, grants and fundraising events.
After over two years of hard work from Ed, Vince and Sam the signing of the lease for the land adjacent to Lord Lawson School is immanent. It is now that every penny counts to help the clubs quest for improved training facilities. These facilities will go on to benefit the health of the pupils of Lord Lawson School, Birtley community and the community of Gateshead for years to come.
In the past the club has organised events such as a sponsored balloon race, super market bag packs, unique events like the coast to coast relay and the Edinburgh to Birtley relay. More recently Margaret Hopkinson, Ed Lown, Vince Taylor and Alison Hopkins have given up their Sunday morning lie ins to man a stall at a car boot sale, selling items kindly donated by club members. This has been a great success and another is planned for later in the year.
So how can you help? If you are not already involved any help is appreciated. Help like, donating items or manning a car boot sale, ideas for and supporting future fund raising events, coming along and supporting Birtley AC athletes while competing or competing yourself, writing an article for the website, suggest Birtley AC to friends. The Evening Chronicle make a wish campaign is printing tokens until January the 15th so there’s still time to collect as every token will be exchanged for a slice of £50k. There are many ways to help and if you can think of think of any please tell us. Enthusiasm and passion are invaluable. Giving words of encouragement to an athlete or a thank you to a coach can go a long way.
2011 will be an exciting time for Birtley AC and the local community. The potential can’t be measured and it’s through your help that the roots of Birtley AC will be able to spread allowing our club to grow and strengthen its already respected standing.
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Tags: Charity, development, Partnership
Posted in development, events
August 19th, 2010
Birtley Athletics Club along with the 4 other Network clubs in Gateshead are beginning to feel the impact of being supported by England Athletics through their Network plan. Since the successful application for funding was agreed by England Athletics in November last year Birtley A C now have 3 development coaches working across the Borough delivering a whole range of athletic activities to hundreds of school children.
Katy Wilson, Steph Hopkinson and Ed Lown have all been involved in a busy programme working in Primary and Comprehensive schools delivering a host of activities involving: mini athletics – a new concept involving 5-7 year olds, 1 hour sessions “in house” during curriculum time (usually 6 week blocks), organising and helping at school sports days, running star track schemes (3 day athletics camps for 8-15 year olds) and have also hosted Birtley AC’s Junior Challenge – an annual sports hall event involving over 150 young people from local schools and athletics clubs in the area.
The benefits of being supported by the Network are immense for any club and in Birtley’s case has resulted in stronger links with local primaries and a subsequent increase in membership particularly in the younger age groups. Links with external partners such as the Local Authority and School Sports Partnership have been strengthened through the aims and objectives of the business plan.
The fact that the Gateshead clubs were already Networking through the Gateshead Athletics Development Group meant that a lot of the development work was already happening but the endorsement from England Athletics means that the Network is now funded directly and clubs can benefit financially to improve structures to cope with the increase in demands in terms of coaching, volunteering and administration.
In the last few months Birtley have benefitted directly with help towards things such as courses (coaching, first aid etc.), tickets for the Aviva Grand Prix at Gateshead, equipment and rent. This has allowed the club to run it’s finances effectively whilst at the same time increase it’s development fund allocated for improved training facilities at their base at Lord Lawson School.
Birtley Ac have long been at the forefront of recognising and appreciating the benefits of being supported by the governing bodies of the sport – they were one of the first clubs to achieve club mark status in the country as well as fully participating in programmes such as “Clubs Futures”. The Club is now looking forward to a full winters programme of delivery and also to joint training sessions and “Flying Coach” visits which will benefit all of the clubs and athletes in the area.
Ed Lown
Coach co-ordinator
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Tags: England Athletics, Gateshead Athletics Network, mini athletics, Partnership
Posted in development, events
