An update on Hamish Reilly

The Maidstone Leisure Trust funded Hamish in 2018, covering training costs through their bursary scheme. The trust were so glad to help out in his younger days and are now very proud of what he has achieved so far.   

 A update from his mum:

“He has had a much better year, moving out of the Junior level racing and into the Senior ranks.

In May he qualified for the U23 euro champs in Poland.  It was heats and finals – he got through to finals but had a crash (it was very wet) so finished further down than hoped.

In June he was asked at late notice to be ‘reserve’ for the Senior relay team at the Worlds in Montreal (after both Jonny Brownlee and Alex were injured at the Leeds Tri).  Although he wasn’t needed for the seniors he was used for the U23/Junior relay – had a fantastic 1st leg and the team won silver.

Hamish also had a few European Cup races through the season. Each one gaining more experience and improving position each time.  Results are on World triathlon.

In August he was part of the senior relay team at the European champs in Munich, teaming up with Non Stamford.  Lots of learning racing at the highest level!

He also competed for French and Spanish teams in their leagues with good results.

Hamish moved to Loughborough in September to start University and is part of their triathlon performance squad now.

His progression through the season has been positive. He saved his best to last- he has just returned from Abu Dhabi World U23 Championship with Bronze!  It was an amazing achievement and totally unexpected – it was his first race at that level, as well as an Olympic Distance and the heat!  Obviously he is over the moon.  If you have triathlon live you can watch the race.  He was near / at the front for most of it.

So once again, thank you to the trust for believing in him when he was younger.  I never imagined he would be achieving at the level he is now and still loving it.”

Community use defibrillator

We are very proud to have supported the installation of a public use, community defibrillator at Hermitage Park Community Centre in Allington, Maidstone.

Le Grand Tour Challenge

MORRISONS Supermarket in Sutton Road and Maidstone Riverside Rotary Club are coming together this year to undertake projects designed to support the local community.

Le Grand Tour Challenge is one such event planned. Morrison Foundation’s chosen charity is “Together for Short Lives”.

Through the Foundation, Morrisons Parkwood are locally supporting Demelza House, which provides specialist care and support for babies, children and young people and their families.

Demelza is one of the charities that Riverside Rotary support so we are pleased to join with Morrisons and Demelza House to bring together this fun and fundraising event.

On Saturday 16th July 2022 commencing at 10.00am, using 4 Static Spin Bikes kindly loaned by the Maidstone Leisure Centre, there will be a day long programme of spin bike events. All 4 bikes will be sited together in Morrisons Parkwood Car Park near, but not obstructing the main entrance to the store.

Spin Bike 1 – Rotary Celebrates 100 years in Maidstone

To celebrate this special occasion, Maidstone Riverside Rotarians will take turns on one of the static bikes to ride a combined total of 100 Km as part of our Le Grand Tour Challenge. This is two thirds the distance of stage 12 of this year’s Tour de France. The stage ends on the summit of the famous Alpe-de- Huez and will have been held two days before our Challenge. Let’s see if our bold Rotarians can match the achievement of the professionals, but with maybe slightly less challenging hills!

Spin Bikes 2 & 3 – Teams of 3 from local clubs and organisations are invited to take part on the bikes to see how far each team can ride in 50 minutes. Each team applying will be allocated a one hour slot. This allows changeover time between each team. Each team member will be expected to ride at some stage during the 50 minutes, but there is no restriction on the length of time that each of them rides.

The top three teams clocking up the most kilometres to the nearest metre, in their allocated 50 mins, will each receive a cash donation. The donation must go to their club, organisation or chosen charity as follows:

Spin Bike 4 – available to members of the public for short rides in exchange for a charity donation.

The Inaugural Mote Park parkrun

Our chairman, Clive took park in the inaugural Mote Park parkrun on Saturday 4th June!
It was a brilliant event which the parkrun team has worked very hard to plan and organise. There were around 240 runners, despite not actively advertising the event!
The Maidstone Leisure Trust are pleased to have helped with the finances to get this up and running and look forward to working alongside the team in the future.
We thank the Mote Park parkrun team and volunteers for giving up their time to make this a huge success and can’t wait to watch it grow in the future.

Reconnect Kent

Reconnect is a Kent County Council led, community based programme designed to get Kent’s children and young people thriving following the pandemic.

Children can have fun together, catch up on missed learning, engage in sports and activities, regain their confidence and gain access to further opportunities. For more information, please visit – https://www.kent.gov.uk/education-and-children/schools/reconnect 

We’re proudly supporting the Reconnect, Kent Children and Young People Programme,  at the Maidstone Leisure Centre. There are a range of exciting free or discounted opportunities that children who are eligible for free school meals, and their friends and family can take part in!

Please visit the Maidstone Leisure Centre page for more information

https://www.maidstoneleisure.com/reconnect/

Holiday Activity and Food (HAF) Programme

The Maidstone Leisure Trust have been working with a number of partners to ensure the successful delivery of the Holiday Activity and Food (HAF) Programme. HAF provides opportunities for children who are eligible for free school meals to take part in activities at Maidstone Leisure Centre and includes a free hot meal.

The overall programme has been a partnership between the local leisure trusts; Maidstone Leisure Trust, Swale Community Leisure (SLC), Tenterden Leisure Centre Trust and the Meopham Sports & Leisure Association and our operator, Serco Leisure

Following successful delivery during the Summer and Christmas holidays in 2021 and Easter 2022, the HAF programme will be running for Summer and Christmas 2022 at Maidstone Leisure Centre, alongside the other relvant locations associated to the trusts.

Locations;

Maidstone Leisure Centre, Swallows Leisure Centre, Sheppey Leisure Complex, Hermitage Park Community Centre, Tenterden Leisure Centre and Meopham Leisure Centre.

At Easter, we were thrilled to fund Easter Eggs for the children – Clive attended to present these to the children.

“Well done, it has once again been a brilliant project and I was privileged to be invited along to present Easter eggs to the young people who I met on one of the days. My thanks to everyone involved and on behalf of the Leisure Trust, I look forward to this very worthwhile project continuing and building on it’s success.

I also have say that it was very moving to see the smiling faces and gratitude displayed by many of the youngsters when the Easter eggs were handed out.”

Clive Bradburn, Chair of Trustees

Actively Involved Swimming Sessions

We are pleased to be working with Involve on their Actively Involved Project; a Kent service which improves health and happiness for those 55 and over, or living with complex health conditions.

For more information, please visit – https://www.involvekent.org.uk/actively-involved-1

Get Active Summer Sports programme in Maidstone

Get Active Summer Sports programme is starting in June.

These sessions are all in the Maidstone area & FREE for children (aged 5 to 16) to attend.

Click on the specific locations for more information!

Get Active Programme – Marden

Get Active Programme – Parkwood

Get Active Programme – Shepway

Get Active Programme – Tovil

Trustees complete Great Home Run

Three of the Trustees; Clive, Andy and Richard, have been taking part in the Great Home Run in aid of local charities.

The project involved individuals or groups setting their own challenges, to be undertaken through the month of April, with the aim of bringing the Maidstone community together in a bid to start the ‘home run’ back from Covid 19 and raise money for local charities.

Andy set himself the challenge of walking 250 km around the Aylesford area.

Clive chose to run up the equivalent height of Mt Everest. He did this on Old Loose Hill near Maidstone. To reach the summit he hade to run up the 17% gradient hill averaging 5 ascents every day throughout April and in doing so reach the equivalent height of Everest from base camp to summit.

Richard cycled 500 miles through the month, taking a total of 37 hours with approximately 167,000 revolutions of the pedals. His total hill climb was 16,236 feet, which is higher than Mont Blanc.

              

Maidstone Community BOX Fitness

Olympia Boxing are hosting a Maidstone Community BOX Fitness programme for adults focussed on helping the community rebuild post lockdown.

The programme is going to be delivered at the Shepway Community Centre starting outside on the green before restrictions allow use of the hall.

The programme will start on Wednesday 21st April and it will run every week term time only until 1st December. It is straight after the school run so the parents can engage in a social, fun fitness session before continuing their daily routine without having to worry about the kids and it is completely free.