Sporting charity, Panathlon has received a donation of £5,000 from the 2023 Welsh Water Community Fund in recognition of the charity’s fantastic work across North Wales.
As well as receiving funding Welsh Water will also continue to support the charity in years to come through volunteering activities across Wales.
The successful charity, Panathlon, provides young people with disabilities and additional learning needs the opportunity to take part in competitive sport. The charity’s sporting programmes – which include multi-skill activities such as swimming, football, 10-pin bowling and boccia – give participants the opportunity to represent their school in sporting competitions that they are often otherwise denied. The Welsh Water Community Fund donation enabled the charity to invest in specialised equipment, hire of venues for sporting events, and specialist staff training for their sporting programmes.
Furthermore, Welsh Water are proud to continue supporting the charity with future volunteering activities. The first of these events took place at Plas Madoc, Wrexham, which saw 4 primary schools compete at Boccia a sport designed specifically for athletes with a disability affecting locomotor function, with Welsh Water volunteers on hand to support the games.
James Dixon from the charity Panathlon said "I would like to say a massive thank you to the Welsh Water staff who volunteered at the Wrexham Primary SEND Boccia event at Plas Madoc Leisure Centre. The team were brilliant and were very helpful throughout the event! As we are one of the few organisations who offer this sporting provision for young people with disabilities and additional learning needs, we really appreciate the support. I look forward to working with them again."
Volunteer Tony Gunning, Welsh Water Network Engineer for the Wrexham area said, "A big thank you to Panathlon and Welsh Water for the opportunity to volunteer at their recent Boccia competition event, I thoroughly enjoyed the morning, seeing the joy on the children’s faces was lovely to see."
Chris Jones, Advanced Digestion Operations Supervisor at Welsh Water’s Five Fords site in Wrexham who also volunteered on the day, said "I would also like say thank you, I really enjoyed the day and would be happy to help out at future events."
Sian Pritchard, Welsh Water Community Engagement Officer said: "We’re proud to support this incredible cause. As a not-for-profit organisation, customers are at the heart of everything we do. We already play a key role in our communities by providing the most essential of services – clean drinking water and treating wastewater before returning it back to the environment and we’re delighted to further support the local community in this way."
Find out more about Welsh Water community fund and support at Dwrcymru.com/communityfund.