School wins lottery grant for outdoor gym (From Daily Echo)
When news happens, text SDE and your photos or videos to 80360. Or contact us by email and phone.
Perins School at Alresford to open new complex
2:50pm Friday 23rd December 2011 in Education
School wins lottery grant for outdoor gym
A Hampshire school has successfully bid for a BIG Lottery grant to build an outdoor gym on the school estate for community use. The money needed for the project has been topped up by New Alresford Town Council (NATC) and Hampshire County Council’s Community Challenge fund to create a fun facility available to all the community, all year round, at no cost.
The Alresford Fresh Air Gym at Perins School will be constructed during the February half term holidays on the playing field at Perins, next to Evolution Health & Fitness. The “gym” will include 12 pieces of robust, all-weather equipment where the exercise resistance is provided by the user’s own body weight. The exercise equipment will be permanently installed and mounted on rubber matting making it suitable for all ages and abilities.
“The idea is to make exercise available to all and to remove the barriers people might face when considering sport” commented Perins marketing and development manager, Helen Armour. “The Fresh Air Gym is a fun and easy way to get active and start improving your health. You don’t need any special clothing or equipment and it’s completely free of charge.”
The project has been developed between Perins School and the Perins Community team taking into account research carried out by NATC and government objectives. “We have carefully selected the equipment for the Fresh Air Gym to suit all the community” added Perins Head of Sports Specialism, Rorie Whybro. “It will be suitable for the school’s students and also for the rest of the local community, including the town’s pensioners. We hope people will come along and make good use of this fantastic facility.”
The Perins Community team will be approaching key community groups over the coming weeks to set up induction programmes and encourage those who would normally shy away from the gym environment to come and have a go. If your community group would like to be involved please contact the Perins Community team on 01962 737283.
