Lake District outdoor centre celebrates £5,000 grant (From The Westmorland Gazette)

Lake District outdoor centre celebrates £5,000 grant

4:54pm Monday 15th October 2012 in News

AN OUTDOOR centre for the disabled in the Lake District is celebrating after winning thousands of pounds to help transport people to its facility.

The Lake District Calvert Trust near Keswick has been handed £5,000 by Lloyds Banking Group Community Fund to help towards offering transport for people with disabilities so they can experience challenging outdoor adventure holidays.

The centre beat off stiff competition from other community groups to land the prize, after polling 32.3 per cent throughout the public vote organised by Lloyds through its Community Fund.

Lynn Healey, business manager, has worked there for 18 months and said it was humbling that people had thrown their backing behind the facility.

“It is absolutely fantastic that we have won this money and we are so grateful for Lloyds and all the people that voted for us,” said Healey, who sees about 4,000 people visit every year.

“We work with people of all ages and with all types of disabilities and they visit us with their friends, family, carers and we offer challenging outdoor activities for these people.

“What we have realised recently with the current economic climate is that some people are finding it harder and harder to come and visit us with us being quite out of the way in the forest.

“So the money is going towards facilitating helping these people get to us. If when talking about the services we offer they are umming and ahhing about getting to us then that is hopefully something we can provide.

“When we see the look on people’s faces when they come here it is fantastic and hopefully this will enable us to have more people come and visit.”

More than 200,000 people across the UK took part in a public vote between May and September to select the charities they wanted to receive the cash, part of £660,000 Lloyds Banking Group is investing through the Community Fund.

In total, 132 projects are set to receive £5,000 as part of the Lloyds Banking Group campaign which also includes Copeland Amateur Swimming Club in Whitehaven.

“To be honest I only became aware of the centre through this scheme and to be honest that is the great thing about it, raising awareness of the good work people do,” said Russ Partington, the Lloyds Banking Group community ambassador for Cumbria.

“And when I did learn about what they did, and went down there and saw it for myself I saw just how worthy winners the Calvert Trust were.

“This money will go a long way and I am delighted they were successful.”

Lloyds Banking Group has provided funding to 132 organisations around the UK through its Community Fund in 2012. To find out more about the Group’s community investment, visit www.lloydsbankinggroup.com/community