A North Walsham charity in with a chance of winning a slice of a £16,000 grant is hoping to improve play equipment at the town’s Memorial Park.
North Walsham Play, a charity which runs events and builds equipment around the town to encourage people to get active, is one of 10 East Anglian charities nominated for the Readers’ Choice Cash for Charity award.
Readers decide how much of the £16,000 the charity will get by taking tokens, which can be found in the Eastern Daily Press and North Norfolk News, to Cash for Charity collection points at local supermarkets, newsagents and other prominent locations.
If North Walsham Play collects 50pc of all tokens collected, it will receive 50pc of the £16,000.
The charity’s founder and trustee Matthew Smith, 37, said: “We’re hoping we’re going to do very well.
“We have lots of boxes out across North Walsham and have received lots of tokens so far.”
The project to improve play equipment at the Memorial Park will cost £94,000 and can be delivered in stages, with one or two pieces of equipment at a time, he said.
It is expected to take 12 months. Previously, the group has overseen work at the playpark and eco-gym at Memorial Park, a toddler playpark at Woodville, and the skatepark on Trackside.
Floodlights are currently being installed at the skatepark, on Trackside, which opened in February this year.
Mr Smith said: “The skatepark has been amazingly well received. We regularly see 30 to 40 users an hour during weekends and holidays. It’s surpassed our expectations.
“Lots of younger children, from four to seven-year-olds, want to try but sometimes they’re scared, but the older children, the 12 to 14-year-olds, help and support them.
“They’re amazing role models and they’re breaking down the stigma about teenagers at skateparks,” Mr Smith said.
The charity was founded six years ago and has raised approximately £600,000 which has been invested in the town.
“That’s a significant amount of money. A lot of that was raised during Covid as well,” Mr Smith said.
He added: “We’re a small group. There are 10 of us, three trustees and seven additional committee members. We’ve worked tirelessly to do this. We’re all volunteers.
“There is passion in the group. A lot of them are mums, dads and grandparents who are driven to work on improving our parks.”
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