As a club, we need to contribute to the £310k MUGA project fund that will provide us with 8 new netball courts at Redborne Upper School.
by MauldenNC in Bedford, Central Bedfordshire, United Kingdom
As the project will still be short of the funds needed to complete the build any additional monies raised will still end up going to the fund. If it goes 'crazy' then we will put the additional money into our hardship fund which helps parens and guardians with fees, kit and netball expenses.
This year MNC is 25 years old! What started as a single team training at Maulden Lower School has now transformed into a large community netball club with just under 200 registered members with an age range of 8 to 55. The club is run by volunteers and enthusiastically supported by our amazing netball parents, we pride ourselves on not only developing skills, fitness and game sense but also helping players experience the gift of giving to others, enable the development of new friendships and understanding that health involves looking after the mind as well as the body. The foundation of all of our sessions is FUN regardless of age or ability; the club is here to give the gift of a lifelong love of netball and all the benefits associated with that.
As well as opportunities to play in the local junior, youth and adult leagues we also have 2 other pathways for our netballers when they get to our Youth programme. They are the leadership pathway and the officiating pathway. Both offer additional opportunities for our members to give back to the sport and additionally help the continuation of the game in years to come.
The image below really says it all! Of the 6 courts currently at the school only 4 are suitable for us to play matches on. When it rains we cannot use the courts as they flood. When the rain clears we still have to adapt our sessions to make it safe for the players as the current surface of the courts can remain slippery for quite some time. Our training numbers are high so it is not simply a case of moving to an indoor venue. Where possible, we try to avoid cancelling our sessions; when we do we make sure that there is always a Zoom session on offer but these are not as well attended as face to face sessions.
As the venue is on a school site this impacts the PE curriculum too; a lot of our members attend Redborne Upper School so the new facility will have a direct impact on their PE lessons; a better and bigger facility means the school can offer additional sports, have more groups using the space, and, ultimately continue to improve the activity levels of young people in the area.
For grassroots clubs, the venue they play at is their home.There are lots of ‘homes’ in the Central Beds area and most of them are for football, rugby and cricket. Although these clubs are embracing and encouraging good levels of female engagement, the most popular sport amongst young girls in the UK is netball. To make the point even clearer the only semi-professional netball club that exists in the Eastern Region nearly folded last year due to lack of funding. Every sport needs role models and every young person needs someone to look up to. Having better facilities can only increase the levels of engagement, creating more young people that are active and, in some cases facilitating the development of future role models for the sport.
As well as netball courts the new facility will also have Tennis, Futsal, Handball courts, a small Hockey space and improved access to the 3G pitch. Having 8 courts means it will be one of the larger netball venues in the county which opens up the potential for more competitions, festivals and leagues. As a club we really feel that being involved in the project allows us to create a lasting legacy in the area that will be enjoyed by many in the years to come.
The 2018 Gold medal that the England Netball team won at the Commonwealth Games was a catalyst in the development of our sport. Having the Games again this year, and in Birmingham, provides yet another opportunity to raise the profile of netball & encourage new people to take up the sport. Hosting the Games in the UK is a legacy in itself and this is being passed on to grassroots clubs like Maulden, who can benefit from additional support for their crowdfunding campaigns.
The money raised will go directly into the Redborne MUGA project fund with all of the new courts being ready mid to late September of this year. If we can smash the target even better; prices have increased over the last two years since securing some of the funding, so, raising more means borrowing less in order to complete it.
Over the years we have been involved in many fundraising efforts in the local community, and, this is the first time we have launched a project that directly benefits the club.
It's easier to show what we do through pictures but, as an overview in the last 4 years we have worked with Young Lives vs Cancer, Saracens Mavericks, The Hygiene Bank, Maulden Community 5k run and also supported local campaigns that have directly impacted our club members, from thank you gifts to the 70 staff at Bluebird Care that supported so many loved ones in our local area during the Covid pandemic to one of our youngest players Lottie, who inspired some 'serious skipping' to raise money for Activity Alliance.
Our most recent project was just this month - we asked our club members to donate items for 'Welcome Bags' to give to the many Ukrainian families arriving to this country that are escaping the war, as usual, we were not disappointed with the efforts of our MNC family!
Our biggest project was the work we did with The Big Smile charity which saw us sending 22 volunteers to The Gambia to introduce netball into their communities and teach local coaches how to transfer their skills to netball. This learning experience for our young leaders and coaches was also an eye opener to the wider issues of female participation in sport across the globe and, as a consequence The Gambia have now set up their own Netball Association.
Although netball is a popular sport played by most females as part of the school curriculum it still struggles to achieve the status and funding that other sports, such as football, rugby, tennis and cricket can often recieve. As club we recognise our local netball community as well, helping where we can to to work with county competitions, walking netball festivals, local schools and other stakeholders in Bedfordshire to raise the profile of the game and provide a pathway for players who excel in the sport to have an increased opportunity to make it a career rather than just a hobby.
Finally, a bigger and better facility means we can increase our membership offer, especially to our youngest members, our lovely and quite adorable 'Maulden Minis'! Young players are really missing an opportunity to learn the game early on; we are one of the only registered partners that run England Netballs 'Bee Award' programme and are really excited about the potential that a bigger and better space will bring.
There are three simple ways to help us reach our target, and make this project a reality.
1. Make a pledge. Don’t delay if you’re going to support us because momentum is key to our success!
2. Spread the word. Share our project on your social media pages and tell the world to get behind us! The more people we reach, the more support we will get.
3. Offer rewards. Get involved if you are a local business by donating things we can offer to our supporters. We will give you a shout out!
Amazing! Thank you for taking the time to get this far... so hard to sum up all that we do and what having the courts will mean to us, the school, the netball community as a whole and all the other clubs that will benefit from the facility.
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