We got our bid of £4772.01p!

 On Saturday 14th November, a group of Ladywell Gymnastics Club staff, members and supporters  gathered in the Sedgehill School Assembly Hall to undertake the daunting task of securing £4772.01p,  needed urgently to replace badly worn safety flooring and matting in the Club gymnasium.

 The process involved Frank Callaghan from the Club's staff giving an emotion charged three minute  presentation to the assembled 250 or so people, briefly outlining the club's history and ethos and why  we felt we deserved the money in terms of the benefits to the local community. Votes were then cast  by those present to express their agreement with the presentation and project- or not - as they saw fit.

 Thirty five projects were bidding for a slice of the combined Mayor's Fund & Locality Fund of £60K, and  the decision as to who was successful was based on the overall number of votes accumulated by each  project after all the respective presentations had been made.

 After a fantastic buffet lunch, and in a hushed hall, it was announced that Ladywell had finished second  overall in the voting and had secured the required funding. In a unique element of the process, projects  were able to give some of their winning money back into a pool, which would then be given to the  project that had just missed out on funding. Ladywell returned £222.01p as a gesture of goodwill and a  token of our thanks for being given not just the money, but the opportunity to bid for it via this most  democratic process.

 Club Manager, Shirley Callaghan would like to express, on behalf of the Club, her most sincere thanks  to all those who turned out on such a foul weather day to give their support to Frank and to vote. Also  a massive 'Thank You' must go to Lewisham Mayor, Sir Steve Bullock, for making the funds available  and also to Sam Dias, Luisa Ares, Sandra Jones and everyone else who worked tirelessly in the  background to make the event such a resounding success.

 For this particular gymnastics club - Christmas has indeed come early this year!

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