17 charities and community groups across Wigtownshire and South Carrick are celebrating being awarded grants from the Kilgallioch Community Fund in its autumn round of grant making, totalling £117,256.08.
Projects supported in this round had a wide range of interest areas, but had particularly strong representation from sports clubs and youth projects in particular.
First time applicants to the Fund, Stranraer Stingrays, which encourages young people aged 8-17 to take part in competitive swimming, was awarded £10,000 to help purchase timing equipment to support training and competitive opportunities for its young members. Club Chair Jamie Nelson said: “We’re absolutely over the moon at receiving this award from Kilgallioch Community Fund. Up until now we’ve been relying on shouting “Go!” and using a stopwatch – not always easy in a noisy pool with 30 young people! This equipment will not only enable our youngsters to get a proper time and improve their training, but it will also mean we can now host competitions, enabling our young members to compete with others from all around the country and opening up new opportunities to them all”.
Nick Walker, KCBC Chair, said: “It was great to see so many projects put forward their ideas in this round. We were particularly delighted to be able to provide support for some great initiatives for local young people; and also to see community events, such an important part of community life, starting to get back into the calendar. We look forward to receiving applications to our next round, which closes on the 18th October”
The next deadline to apply is coming up on the 18th October. This deadline is for both standard grants and large grants. The upper limit for standard grants is now £20,000 so that more projects can come through the Fund using the simple one step ‘Standard Grants’ application process. For groups looking for more than £20,000 – the first step is to fill in the Stage 1 Enquiry form. You can see all the awards made here and all the information on how to apply at https://www.kilgallioch.co.uk/how-to-apply/