The effects of the pandemic have left swimming club Hackney Aquatics needing to raise £20,000, money which will be used to fund club membership for disadvantaged swimmers.
HAC, which is volunteer-led and provides coaching for competitive and leisure swimmers of all ages at Clissold Leisure Centre and other pools in Hackney, has seen membership fall 25 per cent on last year due to rising costs.
Hester Hettinga, head of fundraising for the club, said that costs had “sky-rocketed” this year as social distancing restrictions have left the club having to rent whole swimming pools and to pay for lifeguard costs.
“We live in Hackney, so you can’t just bump up the fees and ask people to pay more because people can’t pay more. Quite a few people have left the club because they can’t afford it anymore,” she said.
Since launching at the end of February the campaign has already raised over £7,000.
Hettinga called the support “quite phenomenal”.
She continued: “It means that now Sport England will pledge £10,000 and we only need to raise another £3,000 pounds to secure the Sport England pledge.”
Fundraising for survival
Reaching their goal would secure the club in the short term, but there is still a worry if pool costs keep increasing and HAC cannot run competitions then they “could be in the same boat in the near future”.
Chair of the club, Chris Ogden, said that HAC had missed out on hosting three swimming galas from March to December 2020, events that usually help to raise around £10,000 – £15,000.
Those funds would be used exclusively to give children from financially disadvantaged backgrounds an opportunity to swim. “We would be paying up to 50 per cent of their monthly fees and we would also help them out with entering competitions and the fees associated,” Ogden said.
For top swimmers at the club, annual costs of competing could run to about £2,500 pounds a year, representing “a huge barrier to entry” to anyone wanting to begin in the sport. Ogden said: “We’ve been actively trying to remove as many of those barriers as possible at Hackney Aquatics Club”.
Supporting the community’s youth
Tony Cronin, now assistant head coach, stressed HAC’s importance to the community.
He joined the club as a swimmer in 2009 and began as a volunteer coach in 2016, with the club helping with his training.
“Swimming’s a life skill but it’s a lot more sociable than people think – it’s almost like a family,” he said.
He sees some of the young swimmers for training twice a day and is there to provide support when needed as “someone else to speak to, rather than a teacher at school or a parent”.
“We’re there to coach them to become better swimmers, but also better people, in terms of teaching them, life skills that they can carry from swimming into a workplace and school.”
The last year has been a challenge, as with pools not being open in the lockdowns, he has had to lead online coaching sessions.
HAC have not been able to swim since the December lockdown, but hope to be back in the pool next month.
