Parents of Leeds gymnasts are "desperate" to save a local gym "on it's last legs".
Charlotte Barker, who co-runs Aireborough Gymnastics Club, in Clayton Wood Close, West Park, says £17,555 is need to keep the club running. 350 children are having to train in a "cold environment", and work with equipment that is too short, broken, or uneven.
Charlotte said: "We're in desperate need of a revamp. Our current heater is on it's last legs and if that does break classes wouldn't be able to run." The club was founded around 50 years ago and has built up a "good reputation".
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The club was first based in Aireborough Grammar School in Yeadon, but when the school was demolished in 1989 to make way for a housing development. The gymnastics club then moved to Benton Park School in Rawdon, but "building issues", resulted in another move in 2016.
The same year the club opened its own gym in West Park, but directors Joanna and Charlotte say they have "never been completely satisfied with it." Now they have set up a fundraiser for a refurbishment.
Charlotte said: "Our facility isn't spacious so we've had to be clever with how we've placed equipment in the gym, especially in our bars area. We moved in to the building with a set of training uneven bars and a set of parallel bars, and made use of matting we had.
"But we have never been completely satisfied with the set up and different levels of matting between the apparatus. It has also now come to the stage were we have some gymnasts that are too tall for our current bars. We need a set of competition uneven bars that are anchored to the floor which will allow our tallest gymnasts to train on bars. We also need new one level continuous matting to run through the bars area, and to connect to the Parallel bars area."
She added: "We're also being told that our heater is on its last legs and the parts to fix if it breaks are either expensive or not available anymore due the age of it. We've been quoted £5,000 for a new heating system which will be more efficient than the current one we have in place, as being in an industrial unit it's cold most of the time in there. If that does break classes wouldn't be able to run."
A fundraiser has been set to try and help the club. Emily Harris' daughter, an Aireborough gymnast, has dreams of becoming an Olympian in the future, like many of the athletes at the club. Emily said: "The club is fantastic. My daughter has never walked away from a competition with out a medal.
"The children have hopeful futures in been unable to achieve dreams and compete in the Olympics. My daughter is one of those too. To do this they need a warm place to train with the correct equipment."
Speaking about what it would mean to the parents and children to get new equipment at the gym, Emily said: "It would mean that our children would have a warmer training environment, and they can spend more time on learning new routines instead of warming up for longer to prevent muscle injuries.
"They can also concentrate more on listening to the coach instead of having to keep warm on the spot through out the lessons. Secondly having new equipment will give them opportunity to learn harder routines and moves giving them chance to compete at higher levels in the future and win more medals."
The total cost of the equipment and installation would be £12,552.20 and the heater system would be £5,000. New equipment would include:
- Parallel bars
- Cabled uneven bars
- Matts
- Ring sets with steel supports in the ceiling on adjustable pulling system
- New heater system
Charlotte added: "We have dedicated a lot of years to the club and it's members. We would love to try enhance the club and to give the club what it deserves." To donate to the fundraiser for Aireborough Gymnastics Club, click here.
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