Grant to help Daventry Town Bowls Club during current COVID-19 pandemic
Daventry Town Bowls Club based in Northamptonshire has been awarded £2,000 of National Lottery funding from Sport England’s Community Emergency Fund towards overheads and costs during the on-going COVID-19 pandemic. The outbreak of the virus and the consequent shutdown of businesses as of March 23 has left the sport and physical activity sector facing a period of uncertainty. In response, on March 31 Sport England announced a £195m package to help the sport and physical activity sector through covid-19. Within the package is a £20m Community Emergency Fund, of National Lottery money to deliver immediate funding to those who have a role in supporting the nation to be active but are experiencing short-term financial hardship or the ceasing of operations due to the impact of coronavirus. The grant will allow Daventry Town Bowls Club to cover some of the ongoing costs and maintenance over the coming months.
Duggie Mitchell, Secretary of Daventry Town Bowls Club, commented:
On notification from Bowls England, Bowls Development Alliance and Bowls Northamptonshire an online application was submitted on 8th April. Given the very high volume of applications from across all sports/communities and knowing staff were working from home it was truly remarkable to receive confirmation of our award from Sport England on Tuesday 28th April. This grant is much appreciated and will help towards our loss of income, paying ongoing costs and hopefully ensuring members have a club to return to whenever it is safe and practical to do so.
Tim Hollingsworth, Sport England’s Chief Executive, said:
“As the body responsible for the growth of sport and physical activity participation, we want the vital grassroots organisations that make sport and physical activity happen in this country to not just to come through this crisis but to be in a position to thrive again in the future. The £20m Community Emergency fund, made possible by National Lottery players is part of a multimillion pound package of support we are providing to ease the pressure on a huge number of the organisations who are central to the nation’s health and wellbeing.
“We are proud to be able to provide vital funding to Daventry Town Bowls Club to help it through these extremely challenging times.”