The Yarrawonga Mulwala Amateur Canoe Club (YMACC) will add to its fleet of new kayaks after receiving two grants recently.
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The club received $2,500 from Community Recovery Grant from Moira Shire Council and more recently $10,000 in funding through VicHealth’s Reimagining Health Grants Program.
Secretary of the Yarrawonga Amateur Canoe Club Tim Roadley said both grants would help make the sport of paddling even more accessible to the wider community.
“We wanted to update our fleet to also cater for larger people at the club but also those that were advancing through,” Mr Roadley said.
“With first grant we were able to purchase new sit-on-top kayaks which will help the club cater to people of all different sizes, making paddling an inclusive and COVID safe activity.
“The second grant will also assist in purchasing four new racing kayaks which will help deliver a set of programs including school programs, and more tailored ‘come and try’ sessions.
“Funds will also be used to cover the costs of instructors for these sessions to help reduce the cost to participants.
“YMACC has successfully ran paddling programs for the last eight years, one barrier identified was that we did not have enough equipment for the bigger kids and adults, some kids have been left out of activities as they feel self-conscious and uncomfortable when falling out of the small kayaks,
“With fundraising and grants we now have been able to increase our fleet of large sit on top kayaks, so everyone can participate in our come n try sessions.
“This will be fantastic news to many kids and families, just last season we had well over 500 new kids give it a go,” Tim said.
Local canoe clubs in the Murray River area have produced many world class paddlers over the years. Australian world championship paddlers, Megan Rose, Maddie Robinson, Kayla Whinray and Brea Roadley all began their paddling as part of a Murray Marathon junior team before moving onto gaining selection for the Australian Marathon teams at World Championships.
Tim said these champions of the sport have encouraged other young females to give paddling a go through club run come n try sessions in Yarrawonga and Cobram. This has led to the formation of the Murray Paddlers and combined group formed from canoe clubs located along the Murray River on the Victorian New South Wales border.
“From a small base we now have a recognizable training and racing group that has won a good share of medals at the Victorian school, sprint and marathon canoeing champions with the standout being Emma Corrin who recently won six gold medals at the 2021 Paddle Australia Canoe Sprint Championships in Adelaide,” Tim said.
In announcing the grant Member for Northern Victoria, Mark Gepp said the aim of the Reimagining Health Grants Program is to help locals build better social connections, provide greater opportunities for physical activity and increase access to healthy, affordable food.
This much-needed funding from VicHealth aims to ensure local organisations can continue supporting our community to get their health and wellbeing back on track in 2021 – and beyond,” Mr Gepp said.
“Our local grassroots organisations understand our communities needs and can deliver locally-led solutions to empower local residents to improve their health and wellbeing in the wake of the pandemic.”
Moira Shire Mayor Libro Mustica said the Recovery Grant stream was launched to help heal the community after a tumultuous year in 2020.
“The Community Recovery Grants were designed to help community organisations to continue to support and improve health and wellbeing through community engagement, collaboration, innovation and social connection,” Cr Mustica said.