Apply for our Community Grant

Bow School Football Club was awarded £250 to buy footballs, cones, pumps and markers. Vicky Brimacombe, a Hastoe resident and chair of the PTA, asked for a Hastoe Community Grant on behalf of her son’s village school’s football club.

She said: “We are trying to keep the children in our community fit and healthy and get them outside. Lots of children will benefit from this as we play tournaments with other teams and share equipment. We previously received a community grant for North Tawton Football Club for a new kit. Funding is extremely difficult here due to our very rural location. The team’s old kit was many seasons old and falling apart. They were often playing much bigger teams who are far better funded and often have much better equipment. Small local sports teams are important to get kids outside, socialising and exercising.”

The Walton Charity were awarded a grant of £250 last year to help pay for Santa’s Stork Christmas presents, wrapping paper and tags for vulnerable children in the borough. This year they were awarded £250 to help pay for shelving for The Bridge food bank scheme to comply with food hygiene requirements. The Bridge is a community hub supporting local parents and families across Elmbridge who are struggling with the rising cost of living.

A similar Community Grant of £250 was also awarded to Henstridge Community Fridge and Larder. The project works to collect surplus food from local shops  and share it for free to bring people together and reduce food waste . You can read what Hastoe resident and fundraiser, Julie Neupane, had to say about it in the full news article.  

West Somerset Railway were awarded £250 to buy paint, gardening equipment and plants for their stations’ upkeep. West Somerset Railway has approximately 200,000 visitors a year and is run by a team of around 1200 volunteers. They have 10 “friends of station” groups, one for each station, who are dedicated to preserving the heritage items at their stations and maintaining their upkeep.

The organisers said, "The average age of a volunteer is 62. Recent statistics from SCF highlight the fact that there are an estimated 4,000 pensioners in Somerset rural villages with no access to transport. Older people are at risk of isolation, loneliness, lack of mobility, ill-health (both mental and physical) making them vulnerable and in many cases disadvantaged. Monitoring and feedback from volunteers highlight the importance of the railway with 85% of volunteers stating that they had learned a new skill."

The fundraiser for a defibrillator in Pilton was awarded £250. The defibrillator will be located in an area with high footfall near to 22 Hastoe homes, the village allotment and the school bus stop. Hastoe Resident, Tracey Mapstone, hopes it will give the opportunity to save a life should an emergency happen again.

She said, "We have no defibrillator near our end of the village and we’ve had two emergencies in the last fortnight. Whilst one of the villagers was in intensive care, I applied for Hastoe’s community grant to partially fund a new defibrillator. He sadly passed away the week after the funding was approved."

Great Bentley's Creative Sparks art project was awarded a grant of £250 to help cover some lessons, experiences, workshops, materials and the chance to exhibit the children's work at an upcoming art exhibition.

The fundraiser said, “A local artist runs the Sunday Sparks art classes, which our residents’ children attended weekly and love. They try to keep the lesson costs reasonable and will use the funding to offer some less fortunate families the opportunity to benefit from the classes. The grant will also to be used to purchase some new equipment for the paints, brushes and canvases. This will hugely impact my daughter as she attends this local art class. It has impacted her confidence dramatically and made her push herself to try new things. I would love this to be extended to other local children in Great Bentley who may be as talented but not have the opportunity to attend.”