Crowdfunder to refurb and reopen Falmouth leisure centre nearing target
The community have come together to raise £41,000 of the £45,000 needed for Ships and Castles
Last updated 28th Nov 2022
A Crowdfunder campaign to raise £45,000 to reopen the much-missed Ships and Castles leisure centre in Falmouth has reached £41,889 of its target.
In May, Pendennis Leisure CIC hosted a community meeting that brought together over 150 citizens and organisations from Falmouth and surrounding areas. The community discussed and agreed two priorities for the company:
- To reopen Ships and Castles as a public swim leisure facility, as soon as practicable
- To create a purpose built ‘21st century’ swim facility for Penryn, Falmouth and surrounding areas, within ten years
Gemma Adams, Director of Pendennis Leisure Community Company says the centre is valuable place for all:
"It's a vital resource for the whole community.
"For young people, teenagers, for older people, it's a great meeting place to go, for mental health as well as physical health.
"These centres are vitally important to the whole community."
The crowfunding has received two really significant grants from Power to Change and Sport England which will help in the upcoming planning for the capital works needed to operate Ships & Castles.
Gemma adds: "It's AMAZING how what began as a tentative request for donations early last month to help us move forward in our campaign with a £10k pot, has - thanks to your incredible support - evolved over the last seven weeks into a movement to not just reclaim Ships and Castles for the community, but to remodel it to make it more useful and accessible for more people in the future."
Gemma, who is a swimming teacher, says kids who have been unable to learn how to swim are not safe in an area surrounded by water:
"There's hundreds of children who are playing catch up because of the pandemic. There's lots of children who are of the age who normally would've been able to swim who can't.
"We've got children that aren't safe in and around the water, and we're surrounded by it in Cornwall."