A SAILING club for disabled children is one of the 33 local groups which will benefit from a share of £30,000.

The grants of up to £1,000 each, which come from Sovereign Vale housing association, will be handed out this month.

A resident-led regional panel for Oxfordshire and Borders invited groups to apply for a share of the £30,000 to spend on projects which benefit neighbourhoods with Sovereign homes.

Based at Farmoor Reservoir, Sailability enables its 40 disabled members to get out on the water either with help or on their own.

The club was awarded £1,000, 20 per cent of its annual spend, which will help buy a new flat-bottomed boat, big enough for two wheelchairs.

Club member Jan Penrose, 59, from East Oxford, was an avid sailor until multiple sclerosis drastically reduced her mobility more than a decade ago.

She said: “To be able to take up sailing again was absolutely fantastic.

“I used to love sailing and I was really sad when I had to give it up.

“With MS, an awful lot of your life consists of finding out you can no longer do things, but now I can go out on the water every week by myself.”

She said she was looking forward to trying out the club’s new boat.

Club chairman Pam Gee, 78, from Farmoor, added: “We love sailing and hate fundraising so this is a great gift.

“Even our volunteers don’t ask for expenses and petrol, and they even sometimes buy things for the club.”

The Damascus youth club, another recipient, describes itself as the complete opposite of a youth club.

Rather than having club nights in a village hall, youth workers go out on the streets of villages around Abingdon – Drayton, Appleford, Milton, Sutton Courtenay and Steventon – and find their members.

Youngsters are then invited to join days out, and eventually put on events for their younger peers.

The club was awarded £1,000 from Sovereign Vale, which it can put towards its Young Leader project, enabling the mentored to become the mentors.

Youth worker Gary Hibbins, 28, said: “The grant is brilliant news, we are really chuffed.

“The money is fantastic, but what has made us really happy is the recognition from our community.”

He has been a full time employee of Damascus for eight years, having benefited from the project himself.

Damascus has now been going for 15 years and works with 300 people in villages around Abingdon.

The 33 grants were announced to groups in a Ceremony at the East Hanney Royal British Legion Hall last month.

 

WHO GOT WHAT Wantage and Grove Community First Responders £1,000
Root and Branch £1,000
His Ministry Club Appleton £100
Thames Valley and Chiltern Air Ambulance £300
Wednesday Club, Wotton £1,000
Help for the Heroes £1,000
Alzheimer’s Club Abingdon £1,000
Monday Club, Abingdon £500
PHAB club, Abingdon £1,000
Booker Park School, Aylesbury £1,000
Damascus youth project £1,000
Wootton Community Centre £1,000
East Hendred Entertains Trust £1,000
Marcham Village Shop £1,000
Abingdon Hospital League of Friends £1,000
Oxford Sailability £1,000
Evergreen club, Appleton £1,000
St John Ambulance £1,000
Catherine House Hospice £1,000
Balsam Family Project £1,000
Appleton Rainbow Guides and Beavers £1,000
King Alfred 4th Scout Group, Wantage £1,000
Wantage and Grove Community Volunteers £1,000
L.O.V.E Care Farm, Community Project £1,000
Wantage and Grove Street Pastors £1,000
British Legion Club, Abingdon  £1,000
Pact Children Centre, Wantage  £1,000
Red Cross Transport, Abingdon £850
Mind Oxfordshire £1,000
Vale of White Horse Schools Football Association £1,000
Breakaway Club Abingdon £1,000
Tackley Community Playground project £1,000