Keeping the success of Team GB going (From Salisbury Journal)

Keeping the success of Team GB going

4:38pm Wednesday 15th August 2012 in Salisbury Letters

THERE is much talk about the Olympics inspiring a new generation of sportsmen and women, but for many families watching the action it may still seem to be just an impossible dream - how does a family on a low income or living in poverty fund a budding gymnast?

In Salisbury, and the surrounding area, the answer is Childrens Chance. We have funds available to support children and young people who have seen the Games and who have been inspired and want to have a go.

The Salisbury area has excellent facilities for most sports. We have a pool for aspiring swimmers, gymnastics clubs for boys and girls wanting to follow in the footsteps of 2012’s historic teams and we even have sailing clubs in the area.

There is no reason for children, young people and parents not toaspire and at least have a chance because Childrens Chance might be able to fund you.

A simple one page application form found on the Childrens Chance website could be all that is needed to get started, and who knows, Salisbury could even nurture one of 2016’s Olympians?

And to make it even easier to deliver on this Olympic legacy Childrens Chance is introducing Sports Gift Vouchers in October.

So if people want to give somebody a gift of ‘sport’ they will buy be able to buy from Childrens Chance for any value from £10 upwards. More information on Childrens Chance Gift Vouchers will be available from the website in September at childrenschance.co.uk, or call 01722 415991.

JANE MILLER

Childrens Chance

 THE Olympics are over. Dust will begin to settle.

Like all others, this community will need to ask, and at once, the pertinent question: What, finally, will come out of this event?

What will become of that expensive stadium, and who will administer it? Will it, together with the other Olympic facilities, be available to all amateurs, irrespective of background? (Incidentally, as cycling has now attained so high a profile, will road cyclists be properly regulated at last?) More worryingly, will the ground-to-air missile base now be accepted as the norm for major public events?

Those who place a high value on sport will wish the momentum generated by Team GB’s performance to be sustained. Schools, predictably, have been urged to play a leading role in this; but we must not see a return to the bad old days when it was more or less assumed that every teacher was a sports enthusiast, prepared to devote hours of extra time to the supervision of these activities.

RICHARD MERWOOD Salisbury