Long Eaton RFC raised over £1,000 for the Forces Children’s Trust during the recent opening of their new facilities. This is how the day went…
Saturday 23rd August will go down as one of the biggest days in the history of Long Eaton RFC and there was an estimated crowd of around 700 who turned out to enjoy the occasion on a sunny Saturday afternoon. The club celebrated the Official Opening of their new facilities, a £300,000 changing room extension and alterations to the existing building. The ‘ribbon cutting’ ceremonial duties were carried out by Jessica Lee MP and Erewash Borough Mayor, Kewal Athwal.
The project came to fruition thanks to some amazing grants and funding, £100,000 from the MOD Community Covenant, £80,000 from the RFU and £50,000 from Sport England were the largest providers, the club raised the rest through charity events and persuading local companies to give donations of materials needed to complete the project. The whole project consists of four new changing rooms, 2 officials changing rooms, a new room for our Sports Therapist, new WC’s and disabled facility as well as a new committee room.
The construction of the project fell slightly behind time due to bad weather in the early stages, this allowed a slight amount of panic to set in but with our Chairman, Chris Brookes, at the helm and cracking the whip along with members helping out with the finishing touches, we achieved the deadline and all was ready for the official opening duties to be carried out.
The new build is a great success and will benefit the 300+ players of all ages within the club. LERFC have received many positive comments from players, RFU officials, sponsors and many others. Some are saying the extension, along with the size of player membership, has turned LERFC into a flagship club within the East Midlands.
Through the day we had displays from the Long Eaton Militaires, our local marching band, who gave their time to keep us entertained between the rugby and ceremony. There were stalls aplenty and lots of activities for the younger element on the day. On the field, our Colts started off the rugby with an inter club match before the LERFC 1st XV entertained the Army Barbarians XV, Long Eaton coming out 29-0 winners.
The founder of our chosen charity for the day, The Forces Childrens Trust, Denny Wise was in attendance to promote this wonderful organisation and raise money to help with projects for those unfortunate children who have either lost parents or have parents that have sustained life changing injuries whilst in service with our armed forces. Long Eaton RFC also raised £1084.38 for the trust on the day.
Long Eaton RFC wholeheartedly thank all of the organisations, companies, members, volunteers and friends that helped make this project and the day such a success.
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