Plymouth Amateur Rowing Club has received a £2000 donation from the Pavers Foundation. The Foundation made the donation on behalf of all the colleagues at the Pavers stores in Plymouth and Bideford. The donation is being put towards the running of the South Coast Rowing Championships which will be held later in 2025.
The rowing club is a not-for-profit, volunteer led community sports club. Dave Reeby, Chairman of the rowing club, said, ‘Our goal is to give the whole community access to a fantastic natural stretch of water where we can promote basic fitness, mental health and empower young people to build their confidence and social skills’. David added that the donation towards the event will help bring together over 100 children & young people from clubs across the South of England and enable them to ‘participate in a fun rowing competition environment while also creating a lasting impact within the rowing community’.
Plymouth Amateur Rowing Club has seen two of their former members, Chloe Brew and Jacob Dawson, who started their junior rowing journeys with the club, make it all the way to compete in the 2024 Paris Olympics, of which Jacob won gold as part of the men’s eight team. Highlighting the importance of grass roots level rowing, which relies heavily on fundraising and volunteers.
Nikki Dunn, store manager at Pavers Bideford, is a regular volunteer and umpire at this event and has an insight into the planning and organisational effort needed to run these types of events. Nikki added, ‘I am so passionate about rowing and this event and hope to see it continue for many years to come’.