Epic Kidz donated £500 to Derian House a children’s hospice in Chorley, for families who have a child with a life shortening condition. The emphasis is on giving support to children and their families, and providing them with choices which deliver an approach to care as individual as they are. The money was used to purchase a portable amplifier and some disco lights for their “portable sensory experiences”. Within hours of setting it up it was used by children for a sensory session which they all really enjoyed!

Read more about them at http://www.derianhouse.co.uk

We continue to support Lancaster & Morecambe Voluntary Police Cadets. They are a group of young adults aged 13-18 who have an interest in the Police & want to give something back to communities. Currently there are about 30 cadets of mixed ages and genders from all sorts of backgrounds. The Cadet moto is “lets get out there & do some good”. Their aims are to promote a practical understanding of policing in young people, give them a chance to be heard and to participate positively in their communities.

Epic Kidz has donated £500 towards the Lancaster & Morecambe Voluntary Police Cadets to finance a weekend away for all new cadets, to get to know each other.

You can find out more about the Police Cadets on their facebook page or their website. 

Storth School in Lancashire is seeking funding to assist with the building of an artificial running track around the school grounds. This is not only so that the entire school can run every day throughout the year no matter what the weather but also the local community too.

Storth School is a small village school with 63 pupils. Last summer we took part in the Cumbria Active Mile Challenge. Every morning pupils ran a mile;or whatever they could manage, before school started. Unfortunately after a while the grass became too slippery and muddy, and we had to only run when the ground was dry enough to ensure pupil and parents, safety. The full cost of the running track will be several thousands of pounds, Epic kidz contributed to help them (and the kids) on their way. 

The Dave Hitchen Fund continues to support talented gymnast, Abbie Dawson. Abbie had successfully obtained a place on the Senior Womens Gymnastic Team and went on to represent Great Britain at the European Team Gymnastics Championships in Slovenia last October.

Abbie already has a British Gymnastics gold medal and was hoping to also get a European gold with her team.

Abbie went to Slovenia on 10th October as part of the Senior Womens Gymnastics Team. The team qualified in 6th place overall and made it to the final on 15th October. This year she has qualified for the European Championships in Portugal.

Abbie and her parents have thanked everyone for their support. Abbie would not have been able to fulfil her dream if it wasn’t for the support and funding from the Dave Hitchen Fund.
#FastHitch

This year Vicky Higgin completed the Lakeland 50 in memory of her husband Graeme. We donated £500 to Eden Valley Hospice.

“July 2015 my Husband Graeme had just finished LCW, Ironman distance split over 3 days in prep for his first Ironman the following year, he was one of the fittest people I knew. How could we have known what was to come. In Jan 2016 Graeme was diagnosed with a brain tumour, this cruel & unforgiving disease devasted our family taking my Husband & Father to our 2 children on January 1st 2017. Eden Valley Hospice’s dedicated team provided us with a place of calm, love, understanding, preparation, comfort, care & empathy & continue to do so when needed. Please continue to share my just giving link and support me to raise as much as we can”

We were approached by Cumbria Schools Orienteering who has lost their funding for 2018 and we donatd £1000.

This year’s County Championship was held on Low Rigg, Keswick and attracted 99 competitors ranging from Year 5 through to Year 13. The event was organised by West Cumberland Orienteering Club on behalf of CSOA and trophies were presented by Steve Birkinshaw, holder of the Wainright summits record. The Secondary Schools race was won jointly by Ulverston Victoria HS and Cockermouth School who each had four individual winners and three runners-up. Hayton School from Carlisle again won the Primary Schools event.

The year has been a tremendously successful one for athletes supported by CSOA in national and international terms. Dan Spencer, Niamh Hunter and Alistair Thomas all represented Great Britain at the World Junior Orienteering Champs, and all three have several more years of potential competition in this age group. All have also been selected to run in the European Youth Championships later in the year.

Athletes have to part fund both their attendance at JWOC and the training camps for JWOC and it is a key role of CSOA to assist athletes to represent their country. The Association contributed £150 to each of these youngsters. We also help runners earlier on in their career development by helping them to fund attendance at National training camps for younger age groups, and this year 10 pupils from Cumbrian schools have been helped to take part in such camps.

Other key functions of the Association are to help Cumbrian schools to take teams to the British Schools Championship held each November in a different region. Last year we helped two schools completely new to this level of competition from Barrow in Furness, and to their delight the children from Holy Family school won overall Bronze Medals in the Primary Category.

Our Association is a very small one but it is central in providing training and competition to hundreds of children across the County in their own localities, and supported by the three major Orienteering Clubs in Cumbria.

We are very grateful for the support of Epic Kidz and of the Montane events and the runners who take part in them.

Wigan Tri Club have a thriving junior section ran by volunteers. To keep the junior section going, they constantly need equipment and replacement spares for their fleet of children’s bikes. We donated £300 to help them buy spare tyres, tubes and other parts for the Wigan Tri Club junior bikes.

Pictured is the chairman looking very ‘tyred’ as he failed miserably to complete a hula hoop routine. Find out more about Wigan Tri Club at http://www.WiganTriathlonClub.co.uk