There were celebrations in Hullbridge today as delighted parents and teachers learned that the Riverside Primary School Swimming Pool had been saved, thanks to a £25,000 community award from the OneFamily Foundation.
The pool had fallen into disrepair due to lack of funds, and needed gas pipes fixing, broken tiles replacing and a new cover for the outdoor pool; now that funding has been secured, the pool can be restored to its former glory. Most importantly, the Community Award means all the children who attend Riverside Primary School will have access to the pool for much needed lessons. The school is situated close to a river, so providing access to swimming lessons is crucial.
The OneFamily Foundation is a unique customer benefit fund, provided by mutual, OneFamily, which has committed to make £5million available to its members over the next five years to make their lives and communities better. One person who was particularly delighted about the award was Donna Thresher, OneFamily customer and daughter of the original founders of the Riverside Primary School Swimming Pool. Donna’s children, son Cree and daughter Eden, are both pupils at the school.
“Our village community, including my own parents, came together over 40 years ago to fund and build this pool, so it is fantastic to be able to have helped secure its use for the next generation. My youngest, Cree, has just started at the school and knowing that he and the wider community will have the opportunity to learn how to swim here and just enjoy the pool generally too is such a blessing.
“Living so close to a river we consider swimming lessons to be absolutely key to the happiness and safety of everyone in the village, so when I found out about the OneFamily Community Awards, I knew that this was the ideal way to raise the funds we needed. Thanks to the amazing support of those involved with the school and the whole community, our dream of securing the pool for the next generation has been realized. I couldn’t be more grateful to the Foundation.”
Andy Douglas, Head Teacher at Riverside, added: “This Community Award is going to have a huge impact on the 290 pupils in the school and about 200 people in our community including the elderly, and scout and brownie groups. The pool provides them not just with masses of fun but will also provide them with the ability to stay safe in our lovely riverside location.
“It’s very exciting that the work can now start. We want to say a huge thank you to both the OneFamily Foundation for their generosity and the public for voting for our project!”
OneFamily is a mutual organisation providing investments, savings, health and life insurance products to help families work together to meet the financial demands of modern life. As a customer-owned business it is run for the benefit of its customers. The OneFamily Foundation redistributes a portion of the organisation’s profits, and intends to make £5 million available to customers over the next five years to help them, their families and their local communities. The Foundation has also helped hundreds of customers with personal grants since its launch in 2014, and its funding pot is made possible due to the financial stability of the customer-owned organisation.
There are four categories for each award, in order to ensure the Foundation gives a wider range of community projects an equal chance to access the funds. For this round of Community Awards there is one award of £25,000 and four awards of £5,000 available in each category. Riverside Primary School Swimming Pool won the largest award available in the Schools category.
James Hale, Customer Engagement Manager at OneFamily said: “We are delighted to award one of our £25,000 community funding awards to Riverside Primary School. The awards exist to enable customers to make something better in their area and this funding will contribute to the safety of local children and will also benefit the wider community. Its potential impact will be wide ranging so it’s great that OneFamily can play a part in that.”
For further information about the OneFamily Foundation please go to https://foundation.onefamily.
Swimming news courtesy of OneFamily Foundation.