I am pleased to announce that we have launched our Crowdfunder programme in order to raise funds to support the development plan that I sent to you recently including the refurbishment of some aspects of the Club.

The Crowdfunder programme is a project in conjunction with Sport England.  If we can raise £10,000 in donations then Sport England will match this figure with a further £10,000, therefore, raising £20,000 for the club.

The funding from this Crowdfunder is to partly increase participation in sections of the community including the 50+, disability, schools and senior groups as well as to upgrade the facility for all users.

We will increase the number of people who play the sport and the number of sessions we run every week.

The funding will be also used towards the upgrade of the club. The current facilities of the club are largely based on the former school sports hall and whilst they have worked well for the 17 years that the club has been operating an upgrade of the facilities is really needed.  This will include a new specialist ITTF approved floor to replace the one that was in place when we took over the sports hall and to improve the changing facilities and toilets to bring them up to modern standards. Improve the presentation of the exterior of the club as some aspects are becoming tired including the signage and the facia boards around the top of the building.  Replace the table tennis tables which worked very well for the club over the period but do need to be renewed and new tables will clearly provide a playing improvement.

We need to have 100 people donating and there is no limit to the level of donation, so it could just be a £5 donation with no upper limit.

Our programme is also eligible for Gift Aid, so if a donor is a UK taxpayer the Club could benefit from an additional 25% of the value of the donation.

To encourage support, we have been able to secure a number of incentives which we hope you will find attractive.  These rewards are:

  • Family photograph shoot from our Deputy Chairman, Karl Shaw, who is a professional photographer and runs a design studio.
  • £30. Voucher from Morrison’s supermarket
  • 4 x 30 minute coaching sessions on a 1-to-1 or group basis with Carole Moore

In addition to this, our equipment sponsors, Tees Sport, have provided 50 boxes of 12 Butterfly R40 3* table tennis balls.

Your donations need to be registered with Crowdfunder by following the link

https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/ormesby-ttc-community-development-programme

The Crowdfunder programme is just one part of our new activities which include a number of other developments and fund-raising schemes, as detailed in the Development Plan that was sent to you recently.

One of the incentives that we have discussed with regard to the new programme is to host more tournaments at the Ormesby Club.  An initiative from Richard Scruton is to run an Ormesby Open Tournament as a 2* and this has been agreed with Table Tennis England for the 10th June.  This will be an Open Tournament with mixed singles, so both men and women can enter, and we organise on a ranking basis so that 8 players of a similar standard play each other.

Your support for our Crowdfunding programme would be greatly appreciated.

Alan Ransome