Financial Affairs help Trawden AC funding bid off the blocks

A Burnley financial firm is helping Trawden Athletic Club get its Aviva Community Fund bid up and running.

Financial Affairs of Standish Street is supporting Trawden AC in their endeavour to raise £2,470 to help them support their junior members better.

The running club, which was established in 1993, has plans for a number of initiatives each aimed at boosting the quality of coaching for members aged 6 to 16. Trawden AC needs funding to put in place an improved junior coaching structure, which will require putting some coaching assistants through full Athletics Coach accreditation and developing other coaches through Leadership in Running Fitness courses. If successful, Trawden AC would also use their funding to invest in training equipment appropriate to its junior members and contribute towards the hire of training facilities.

The Aviva Community Fund invites applications from community groups for important causes, and aims to support around 800 projects. Insurance brokers are also welcome to submit applications on behalf of projects they care about in their local areas, with a pot of money ring-fenced for such projects.

Financial Affairs already has a close relationship with well-established running club Trawden AC. Financial Affairs’ director and personal & small business manager Gavin O’Connor explained: “Both myself and my co-director and brother Laurence live locally. At the start of this year, when I was out of shape and carrying a little extra weight, I joined the Trawden AC Couch to 5K group – and I’ve never looked back. I’m fitter now than I’ve been in years and ran my first half marathons in the summer with a third half marathon planned in early November. Trawden AC have given me so much and that’s why I’m so keen to offer my expertise to help them with their funding bid.”

To show support for Trawden AC’s latest funding bid, you must first register on the Aviva Community Fund website. You will receive a credit of 10 votes to cast for your chosen project or projects – it’s up to you how many votes you give to a project and you can cast all 10 votes for the same project if you wish. Trawden AC would be incredibly grateful for all 10 of your votes!

Vote via the Aviva Community Fund website - you can find the ‘Supporting the juniors - Trawden AC’ project via the Trawden AC website: www.trawdenac.co.uk/aviva.

Voting opened last Friday and will run until Friday 18 November. The top 300 projects will be announced on Tuesday 22 November. Judging will then take place, with the winning bids announced on Tuesday 10 January 2017.

In the first few days of voting, Trawden AC’s bid received around 1,000 votes on the Aviva Community Fund website.

Paul Brown, chairman of Trawden Athletic Club, said: “We’re extremely grateful for Financial Affairs’ support. They have previously sponsored high-vis running vests to keep our volunteers and runners safe on dark evenings, and now they’re assisting us in trying to secure funding that will see us better serve our junior members. “We currently have over 100 junior members and, due to high demand, have recently needed to create a waiting list. It’s absolutely wonderful that we have so many young people in our area taking up running. It’s a sport we all love and as a club we are keen to nurture that passion in the next generation. Any funding we can secure will really help us achieve this.”