Our community gymnastics club has been broken in to!!

Hi, it's Nicole I own/run Raven Valley Gymnastics club c.i.c (community interest company). We are a not for profit organisation, that offers our services to over 800 families each week.

We are devastated to say, that upon our arrival at the gym today, we have been broken into over night :(

We are set to open our doors tomorrow (Monday 7th July) at our new premises - Tanfield Lea industrial estate south. Just the finishing touches today, and we were sooo excited to showcase our new facility and welcome all of our wonderful families back tomorrow.

The move to our new gym has already depleted all of our club funds. We have really struggled to stay afloat and make ends meet. The work that needed to be carried out at the unit was extensive, to make it usable but more importantly safe for children's use.

Luke - my husband, has taken two weeks leave from work and worked at the gym tirelessly. Building walls, making a viewing gallery, the list is endless. Working 8am-10pm for two weeks straight. The whole coaching team have chipped in, it has been a monumental task.

Luke's own personal tools have been taken during the robbery, to the tune of over £3000!!

As well as the tools, they have smashed our new front door, which needs fully replaced. They have taken our safe and till, with the cash in. The laptops/computer system has been taken too. Our ipod has been stolen, which has all of our pre school session music on there. They have even taken our tuck shop stock - hundreds of pounds worth of chocolate and drinks! I am sure that as the days go on, more items will be identified.

This incident has completely devastated us as a club, family and business.

We will not let this beat us! We have been together as a club for nearly 40 years now. We have gone above and beyond to survive Covid, rent increases, facility moves etc. We won't let the actions of these scum bags stop us now.

But we do need your help!

Please if you could spare even a very small donation, it would be gratefully received! As we have a real struggle to get things sorted in time for opening.

Thank you so much for taking the time to read this, in the mean time, we will carry on putting our balloons and bunting up! And make the best of this awful situation.

TEAM RAVEN