Looking back at 2021 - January , February and March

The start of 2021 was a busy time for the Foundation, as the pandemic started to kick in and sport was put on hold the Foundation looked at ways to support the volleyball family.

The Foundation launched the first round of the Sitting Volleyball campaign and Manchester Marvels, Hull Thunder and Leeds Gorse were the first recipients of funding to support the development of sitting volleyball in their clubs.

During January the Foundation started a recruitment drive, looking for new Trustees looking for people with one of 4 areas of expertise - Marketing, IT, Fundraising and Copy Writing. As the Foundation doesn’t have any employed staff, the Trustee will be expected to support the charity as Non-Executive Directors and support the operational delivery of the Foundations activities.

In February, Bucks Sitting Volleyball and Wessex VC started an online training programme in preparation for the end of the lockdown, SideOut were delivering a fitness programme.

We shared the dates of the Masters and Ashcombe Volleyball tournaments for their 2021 summer events.

In March, the Foundation was successful in their application to Sport England ‘Return to Play’ fund to support sitting volleyball to get back on court following the pandemic. The grant for £9,500 helped to pay for 30 COVID safe nets and infection control kits for each club and for the Sitting Grand Prix.

At the end of March, following a successfully recruited programme, the Foundation welcomed 5 new Trustees to the Board. Steve Schindler, Bev Ward, Andy Narayanan ,Manni Sehmbi and Joelle Watkins. Great to have their experience and expertise to support our volleyball community.

At the end of March the good news we were waiting for was announced, Volleyball outside was once again allowed and Juniors were allowed to be back inside training.