May is always a busy month for our grant committee as we look through the first General Grants applications of the year. This month we awarded grants totaling £31,226 with applications from across the community, from a chess club and day centre to a counselling service and a football team.
We’re delighted to be supporting Street Dance Productions with £3,700 to run a programme of affordable Street Dance classes within the town across the summer. Last year around 40 children took part and we’re expecting the sessions to once again prove popular.
We’ve awarded Chess & Go £300 to enable the group to split into two sessions reflective of ages and abilities. With our support, a session for beginners (eight-years plus) will run from 6.30pm, which an intermediate group running from 7.30pm. Our funds will also help cover the costs of new coaching materials and equipment, enabling junior players to take their skills to the next level and the club to host friendly matches.
Tilehouse Counselling has been awarded £7,876 to fund additional counselling to Letchworth residents in the areas of mental health and self-harm.
We donated £5,000 to Letchworth’s Howard Garden Day and Social Centre to help the centre remain open for another year following a cut in funding from NHDC.
We’re supporting the Khalsa Futsal Academy for a second year, with a grant of £4,600. This will allow the group to run Futsal sessions throughout 2017, opening the sport to between 80 and 130 new participants.
Once again the Foundation is supporting this year’s Letchworth Festival with the Broadway Theatre hosting local community groups, schools and amateur production companies across the two weeks. In addition, the grants committee pledged £1,000 to help towards a thorough research and evaluation project to facilitate a strategic approach for 2018.
Other groups awarded grants in May include:
- Friends of Hillshot School
- Letchworth Garden City Eagles
In April, we awarded our Be the Best, Individual grants, giving individuals grants to help fund their training and equipment. Recipients included:
- Daniel Martin, 15, is currently ranked 9th in the Lawn Tennis Association under 16 national rankings for junior tennis, 2nd across the eastern region and 1st within Hertfordshire.
- Deaf footballer Alexandra Bush, has made 8 appearances for Team GB in the past year and is training hard for this year’s Deflympics.
- 17-year-old badminton player Daniel Davey is currently ranked number 1 in Hertfordshire Juniors, within the top 16 for U19 nationally and ranked 82 in the country for Men’s Singles.
- Ethan Macdonald will be competing at the United Dance Organisation (UDO) Street Dance World Championships in Glasgow this August, having come 1st in the UDO regional competition earlier this year.
- Garden City Eagles development officer Gary Williams will be broadening his skillset via the FA Psychology award.
- Badminton superstar Leona Lee is currently ranked number 1 in singles, girls and mixed doubles in the U13 English National Championships 2017. He target is to represent GB at the Olympics.
- Siblings Sajinth and Shiami Thayaparen are working hard on their badminton training, with both reaching semi-final stages of U13’s at a national level.
All were given awards of between £250 and £750 to fund travel for their busy training schedules, competition expenses and equipment.
