Grants: £250 boosts for cyclists and footballers

Two Stowmarket-area clubs are benefiting from a financial boost of £500 thanks to EDF Energy Networks.
The energy firm donated £250 to Stowmarket and District Cycle Club and Stowupland Falcons Football Club after employees who have an association with them applied for a grant under the company’s Team Sport Award scheme. 
EDF Energy Networks runs the scheme to help encourage staff to take part in community based projects that promote health and fitness.

Cycle Club secretary Jason Everett, who won the award after employee Gary Buckle applied for a grant on their behalf, said: “We are really pleased to have received this award and we will be putting it to good use”

The money went towards providing new vehicle-mounted ‘road race in progress’ signs for more then 60 riders from around the region competing in the Mid Suffolk Road Race. 

Buckle, 57, has worked as a cable jointer for the Suffolk-based energy company for 26 years, helping to keep power supplies flowing. Although based in Stowmarket, he spends the majority of his working day ‘on the road’, maintaining and upgrading the company’s underground and overhead electricity cables in the Bury St Edmunds area. 

The club has more than 45 members ranging from their mid-20s to 60. The club supports a wide range of different cycling activities that their members can get involved in from social cycling to time trialling, mountain biking and charity rides.

Stowupland Falcons spent their £250 grant on a new football kit for their squads.
Through EDF Energy Networks’ Team Sport Award scheme, dozens of community groups have benefited from financial assistance. Last year more than £13,000 was donated to sporting groups which the company’s staff worked with.
EDF Energy, now known as UK Power Networks, was unveiled as a tier one sponsor and sustainability partner of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games and will be helping to make the 2012 Games the greenest in their history.