The future of Kingsbridge Kingfishers Swimming Club looks even brighter thanks to a hugely successful Crowdfunder campaign, supported by Sport England, that has earned the club £13,300.

The money will be spent on a full set of modern diving blocks, used for competitive racing starts. There will even be £3000 left over for the club to spend on further improving young swimmers’ racing experience at Quayside Leisure Centre.

The club was incredibly grateful that a number of local businesses, groups and individuals backed the campaign, with several donating three-figure sums. However it was the generosity of local Freemasons groups that left jaws on the floor, as they combined to donate a total of £2250.

The last of these cheques came courtesy of the Devonshire Freemasons, who gave the club £1500 at a special evening held at Mount Edgumbe Masonic Hall. Attending on behalf of the club was Chairman Dan Quiggin, and volunteer coordinator Hanna Quiggin.

Every autumn and spring, Freemasons from across Devon join together to support local causes. The money is raised through the WAKE Fund, which was set up by William Kneel, the head of Devonshire Freemasonry from 1970-1984. The first round of donations took place in 2001, and since then they have donated over £1,000,000 to local organisations and charities.

Other large donations included £500 from STG Engineering, £500 from Hope Cove Weekend, £250 from the Rotary Club, £200 from JKR Electrical Services, £200 from GoB2B, £150 from Norman Brooking Builders, £100 from Nigel Webster Accountants and £100 from Sykes Cottages.

Kingfishers were also supported through sizable donations made by Kingsbridge Town Council and South Hams District Council.

The first two starting blocks, out of a total of five, have already been purchased with almost 100 Kingfishers beginning to hone their skills with their higher quality equipment.

57 young swimmers will be racing across the county over the next few weeks, competing in development level galas. Each individual can now feel more confident when stepping up to race.

There will be a goodbye for the old diving blocks, which have been in place at Quayside Leisure Centre since the pool’s opening in 1998, at the club’s President’s Shield team event on Saturday June 28th.

Kingsbridge Kingfishers popularity has soared in the past few years and are currently full for juniors with a growing waiting list. Their masters training, for adults 18 or over, is full on a Friday evening, however a small amount of space remains on a Tuesday evening.

Their swimmers compete in a range of team events including local friendly galas, Devon county meets and Open meets. Over the years the clubs swimmers have been selected to swim for Devon, and have also qualified and won medals at regional and national competitions.

The club is affiliated to Swim England, Devon County ASA and Swim England South West which covers Cornwall, Devon, Dorset, Gloucestershire, Somerset and Wiltshire, which works to develop the aquatic disciplines of swimming, diving, open water swimming, artistic swimming and water polo.

Keen swimmers can still register their interest by contacting [email protected]