A Telford & Wrekin gymnastics club has walked away with £50,000 after being named as a runner-up in a national competition run by a leading housebuilder.
Park Wrekin Gymnastics Club received the money through the Persimmon Homes Healthy Communities scheme, which saw the housebuilder give away more than £435,000 to the finalists.
The club, which was established in Telford more than 50 years ago, was chosen to represent Persimmon Homes West Midlands in the final. The group, based in Severn Drive, Dothill, has trained and coached some of Britain’s top gymnasts.
Peter McCready, spokesman for Park Wrekin Gymnastics, said: “We would like to thank Persimmon Homes West Midlands for giving us the honour of representing them in the national finals; it was a great privilege for the club.”
The competition went to a public vote where all 30 finalists battled to receive Persimmon Homes’ top prize of £200,000.
Peter added: “We would also like to thank our members and supporters for voting for the club over the past six weeks and appreciate the efforts and hard work put in to promote our campaign within the wider community.
“The money provided by Persimmons Homes will help to change the lives of young people in the Telford and Wrekin area. It will allow us to develop and expand our fledgling disability programme and to expand the work that we do within the community; helping us to reach out to disadvantaged young people with new projects of engagement.”
The finalists were invited to attend a gala dinner at York Racecourse. Organisations from Scotland to St. Ives received £5,000 for getting to the final stage of the competition.
Overall winners, Heart of England Community Boxing Club, will completely redevelop their new premises in Hinckley with the prize money. The other runner-up was named as SportsAble, based in Maidenhead.
Stephen Cleveley, director-in-charge of Persimmon Homes West Midlands, said: “The Healthy Communities scheme has been a great success and we had a brilliant evening at York Racecourse celebrating the fantastic work of these special sporting clubs.
“We have been overwhelmed by both the response to the competition, and the hard work of those involved within the sporting clubs, who work exceptionally hard to train the next generation of sporting heroes.”
Persimmon Homes launched its Healthy Communities scheme last May, and has since given £615,000 to support amateur youth sport in England, Scotland and Wales.
As part of the scheme thousands of groups and individuals applied for monthly donations of £750 to pay for kit and equipment. As part of their entry they had to say what they would spend the £200,000 on if they were lucky enough to win the top prize.