Volvo Eco Challenge cash grants for local Sailing Clubs

by Andrew Jasper on 9 Mar 2010 Burton Sailing Club and Staunton Harold Sailing Club were awarded £1000 and £1,200 respectively as winners of the 2009 Volvo Eco Challenge at the weekend. The presentation was made at this year’s RYA Volvo Dinghy Show at London’s famous Alexandra Palace.

This is Burton’s second Volvo Eco Challenge award and follows on from last year’s successful bid to the Volvo Eco Challenge. The young sailors at Burton Sailing Club have come up with an idea of turning a number of scrap fibreglass boats into new habitats for local wildlife. The boats will be turned upside down and placed in nearby woodland for the animals. The club will also improve their recycling program and the club will also reduce the amount of water they use by fitting spring loaded taps in all sinks and shower units, as well as the start of a project to look at harvesting rain water.

Staunton Harold Sailing Club has made its first successful application to the Volvo Eco Challenge, and is aiming to reduce their waste by installing a water cooler with individual sports bottles for its members, as well as planting a bed of wild flowers along the banks of the reservoir the club sail on. This will help slow down erosion as well as offering more support to the bank.

One of the young sailors who came up with the Eco Challenge project, 16 year old Hannah Jones attended the presentation at the RYA Volvo Dinghy Show, as well as Lesley Foskett from the club.

The presentation was made by Events Executive at Volvo Car UK Karen Donovan, as well as Jane Swan and Helen Waterhouse from The Green Blue at the RYA Volvo Youth Sailing stand. The Green Blue is an environmental awareness programme for the British Marine Federation (BMF) and the RYA.

The Volvo Eco Challenge was set up to provide grants of up to £1,000 to sailing clubs across the UK for young people aged between 10 -16 to undertake an environmental initiative at their club. Sailing’s seen as an environmentally friendly sport, but research has proven that Sailing Clubs are struggling to comply with current environmental legislation. The Volvo Eco Challenge not only helps the clubs comply with the legislation but also allows the young people to learn more about helping to protect the environment.

Bill Hooton Commodore of Burton Sailing Club said; 'The young people all got involved in the Eco Challenge project and were really enthused about it. It’s great to see the youngsters coming up with innovative ideas to develop the club and its facilities in an environmentally friendly way. We have an ongoing environmental campaign here at Burton and this award from the Volvo Eco Challenge will be a great help.'

Lesley Foskett from Staunton Harold SC said; 'We’ve got a problem with erosion at the club and the project will see our junior member’s plant wild flowers and grasses to reduce the level of erosion through the season. We have a youth sailing session in Easter and we’ll be using that to start the planting. Thank you very much Volvo Eco Challenge for supporting our project.'

The judging panel which included Volvo Eco Challenge Ambassador and BBC Springwatch presenter, Chris Packham were very impressed by both sets of young people’s ideas and enthusiasm for the two projects.

Jane Swan, Project Manager at the Green Blue said; 'Many congratulations to both Burton and Staunton Harold Sailing Clubs for their successful applications to the Volvo Eco Challenge. We’re delighted that with Volvo’s support they will now be able to put their environmental plans into action. For The Green Blue, it is very exciting to watch these projects come to life and to see how the Volvo Champion Clubs are continuing to actively demonstrate sustainable boating.'

Chris Packham commented; 'The Volvo Eco Challenge has really captured the imagination of these young sailors and made them think about simple steps that can be taken to help us all protect our environment. This is only the second year the Challenge has been running and already we have seen some very impressive projects which all the young people involved deserve credit for.'