Cornwall's surf and music festival Boardmasters' organisers have injected £105,000 of funds into local businesses.
The festival's organisers Vision Nine, released the impact of its Boardmasters Foundation for 2022, in which it reported that more than 38 local Cornish charities, beach clean groups, businesses, children's hospices, schools, surfing and sporting organisations and community groups are set to benefit from the raised funds.
Established in 2017, the Boardmasters Foundation was born out of the festival team’s desire to give back and support the culture and surrounding communities that are "at the heart of the festival" which takes place at Fistral Beach and Watergate Bay each year.
This recipients of the 2022 funds include the Schools Consent Project, Wave Women, Black Voices Cornwall, Cornwall Food Action, Newquay Train Station toilets, WGB Lifesaving Club, Newquay Boardriders, The Wave Project, Newquay Junior Academy and Watergate Bay Hotel. Other successful applicants are Newquay Scout Club, Children’s Hospice South West, Newquay Beer Festival, Newquay Tretherras Academy, Trenance Learning Academy and Concrete Waves. More recipients will be announced in the coming weeks.
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Chief executive of Vision Nine and Boardmasters founder, Andrew Topham, said: “We’re really proud of the £105,000 we’ve been able to raised across 2022 and hugely grateful to everyone who has contributed to the Foundation as a supporter of Boardmasters itself. Collectively, through this, we all give back to local organisations across Newquay, Watergate Bay and Mawgan Porth and across Cornwall and beyond.
"Since we established the Foundation in 2017, we have raised over £310,000 and we continue to be ambitious in our objective of building on and growing the annual fundraising and charitable donations that the festival has already made year-on-year.”
Mr Topham continued: “Each year review which projects and charities we will be supporting with one-off donations that year, whilst continuing to work with our long-term partners. I’m really looking forward to meeting a number of our 2022 recipients in the next few weeks.”
Sam Sutherland, fundraising officer for the Newquay Surf Life Saving Club charity added: "We are absolutely delighted to receive this donation from The Boardmasters Foundation. This means we can now start work on repairs to our club house which over the years has become run down.
"All the hard work our volunteers put in is rewarded when we get kind, generous donations like this. It's great when the community can pull together and gain support from events and organisations in this kind of way."
Susie Croft, head of fundraising at The Wave Project, commented: "We are so grateful to Boardmasters for their generous donation of £3000 towards our work with children and young people struggling with their mental health. As a charity we are witnessing first-hand the dire impact that the pandemic and the cost-of-living crisis is having on depression, anxiety and self-harm in children as young as 8, so their support could not have come at a better time.
"Our surf therapy programmes are proven to help young people feel calmer, less anxious and more positive about themselves. Thank you once again to Boardmasters for helping to transform the lives of children and young people across the county."
Funds for the Boardmasters Foundation are raised each year at Boardmasters festival. Applications are reviewed against the Foundation’s key pillars of focus - Community, Force for Good and Culture.
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