Nuneaton Town Community Foundation and its main sponsor, Triton Showers, today (2^nd December) celebrated the Foundation’s first anniversary in festive style together with children from Middlemarch Primary School in Nuneaton.

Set up as a not-for-profit charity in 2010, the aim of Nuneaton Town Community Foundation is to encourage more young people to adopt a healthy lifestyle and participate in sporting activities and help them – opening up the facilities at Nuneaton Town Football Club’s to provide a central hub for community groups. To mark the special one year anniversary, the Foundation and Triton Showers threw a Christmas party at the Foundations interactive gym, based at the football club, where children enjoyed the innovative sports wall, outdoor space and dance mats. Helping them get into the festive spirit the children exercised to the tune of Christmas carols before enjoying a celebratory ‘cool down’ session of pass the parcel.

With support from Triton Showers, the Foundation has helped introduce over 4,000 local children and adults to sporting activities and the importance of living a healthy lifestyle through a wide range of engaging initiatives. Successes to date have included the installation of a striking graffiti wall, the development of community allotments and the opening of a children’s gym for 8 to 16 year olds – all of which are based within the Club’s grounds at the Triton Showers Community Arena. The Foundation has also worked within the wider community, including the development of a multi-sport scheme with the local Youth Club at Wembrook Community Centre.

Ian Neale, Chairman of the Boro’ Football Club said: “We launched the Nuneaton Town Community Foundation with the aim of opening up the fantastic facilities we have at Nuneaton Town Football Club for children and adults from the local community to meet and take part in a variety of healthy living and sport initiatives. Football is a great sport for bringing people together but we wanted to go one step further and make sure the club was giving something back to the community by providing facilities that can be used to help people think positively about sports and exercise.

“From day one our goal has been to make a lasting difference to the area. Through the initiatives we have introduced, such as the ‘Can She Kick It’ girls football training programme, Breakaway Club summer playscheme and Motiv8 evening club in conjunction with the local council, the Foundation is succeeding at giving something back.”

Lorna Fellowes, managing director of Triton Showers said: “We are so proud to be part of the festivities today and have enjoyed celebrating such a successful and fun-filled first year for the Nuneaton Town Community Foundation. We have supported the Foundation from the very start and our backing has also helped them secure additional like-for-like funding, which gave a real boost to their plans for the year.

“Finding interesting and engaging ways to tackle obesity and change eating and living habits, in both children and adults, is so important; particularly as distractions like computer games continue to take up so much of people’s time. The schemes organised by the Foundation are engaging and open to all, allowing children to experience working as a team, enhance their social skills and above all, have fun while exercising together. It’s great to see the positive impact that the Foundation has on the children in the local area and the community as a whole.”

As well as providing on-going support, the Foundation’s partnership with Triton Showers has enabled them to secure additional like-for-like funding through Sport England’s ‘Sportsmatch’ programme.  This additional funding has enabled the Foundation to progress activities such as ‘Particip8’, which encourages girls aged 7-16 years to get involved with sporting activities.

Boro Tots football coaching for 3 to 6 year olds, a ‘Playing for Success’ programme that focuses on improving standards of literacy and numeracy and the ‘Vitality’ programme – a healthy living scheme for 7 to 11 year olds that makes use of the stadium’s allotment - are just some of the other initiatives being run by the club on a daily basis.

Steve Farmer, general manager of the Nuneaton Town Community Foundation said: “We are absolutely delighted with our achievements in the first year of running the Nuneaton Town Community Foundation. The allotments based at the club’s grounds have been a particular success and this year alone we have grown over 90kg of potatoes and assorted vegetables, which have been cultivated by children from local schools and used to teach the benefits of growing and cooking healthy food for a healthy lifestyle.

“Support from Triton has been crucial to make the Foundation a success and we’re now looking forward to involving even more children and adults in sporting and healthy lifestyle activities. Knowing that over 4,000 children and adults from the local community have already benefited from Foundation led projects is an amazing feeling and we’re looking forward to increasing the number of people benefiting from our facilities in 2012 and beyond.”

For more information about The Nuneaton Town Community Foundation or the various projects and initiatives underway contact steve.farmer@nuneatontownfc.com