Burglary-hit club 'overwhelmed' as donors smash fundraising target

“REALLY overwhelmed.” This was the reaction from a thrilled Lymington Rowing Club junior coach after an online fundraising campaign launched following a raid smashed its £1,500 target within a week.

Lymington Amateur Rowing Club’s (LARC) junior squad was devastated after raiders forced their way into its new base at Lymington Shores and stole £400 – cash it had been raising to buy much-needed equipment for a growing membership.

Kirsty Melin and fellow coach Caroline Beaumont had to break the upsetting news to the youngsters returning after the summer holidays last Monday. They set up a Gofundme webpage the following morning.

A target of £1,500 was set to not only fund the already-ordered quad-riggers for a junior boat, for which the stolen £400 was intended, but also to pay for the eight blades (oars) they would hold.

Generous donations flooded in from various sources including past and present LARC members, residents and businesses before a £300 sum from New Milton Round Table achieved the target on Monday afternoon.

This allowed the club to share much more positive news with its junior squad at their session that evening.

Expressing delight that the cash was raised so quickly, Miss Melin told the A&T the set of blades had been ordered, both those and the quad-riggers were set to arrive within weeks.

“We’re incredibly grateful for the generosity that people have shown us by supporting us and sharing our story,” she said.

“The juniors were very excited. I don’t think they could quite believe people could be so generous and kind. We’ve now clawed back all the money that the children had raised and have reached our target far sooner than we could have hoped.

“New Milton Round Table was just phenomenal. It was amazing to suddenly go from £300 off to smashing that target.

“They said they didn’t want to see young people missing out on the opportunities that the club can provide, which was great.”

She added: “We had a real mixed bag of contributors, so we’ve been really lucky. There was a lot of ex-members, members of other rowing clubs and ex-captains, as well as residents who had been horrified to hear about the break-in.”

New Milton Round Table’s vice-chairman Rob Henderson told the A&T its report of the stolen £400 prompted him to raise the idea of supporting LARC’s funding campaign with fellow members. They backed his proposal unanimously.

“We are always on the lookout for causes to help and seeing as this group of youngsters had given up their own time to raise funds for their club, we wanted to show them that their efforts were not in vain and that there were still some good people out there,” he said.

Praising all those who had helped the junior squad reach its £1,500 target, Miss Melin said these benefactors would all be invited to a special party at its base in the near future. They will be given a guided tour of its facilities and could also have the chance to try out being on the water themselves.

With its initial goal achieved, the junior squad is now focussing on a long-term project to gather enough cash to buy a new junior boat which costs up to £15,000.

A host of fundraising activities and events are being discussed, including a 24-hour row which would be carried out on land on rowing machines in a public place such as Lymington High Street.

Some of the older junior squad members – the under-18s – have also expressed interest in attempting to break the record for the youngest crew to row around the Isle of Wight.

Police are continuing to investigate the raid on LARC’s base, which took place during the night of Saturday 14th September, but no arrests have been made yet.

As reported in the A&T, offenders gained entry to the premises by forcing a lock before breaking into a storeroom and taking the £400. This money had been raised from cake bakes and car boot sales and was waiting to be taken to the bank.

Since the raid, a new security door has been installed at the clubhouse and various other security improvements are being looked into.

Describing the stolen £400 having been stored there as “a one-off”, Miss Melin said a lesson had been learned and money would not be kept there again.

Anyone with information about the club break-in should contact Hampshire police on 101, quoting crime reference number 44190328881, or call Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.