Applications are open for local organisations to apply for up to £250 in grants, supplied by Kingsbridge Estuary Rotary Club.

The Kingsbridge Estuary Rotary Community Grant provides financial assistance to local schools, clubs, organisations and good causes to help finance equipment and activities.

Club president, Amanda Bloomer, said: “We just felt with times being as hard as they are its time for us to give something back.”

Applicants can apply for these grants using the online application form. They need to be active organisations, providing educational, recreational, or supporting services. Applications will be judged by a panel of Club members; the judges will examine all applications received, and award grants to applications which they consider to have best merit. 

This is not the first time the club have ran an initiative offering grants to local groups. 

Amanda said: “We ran a scheme a little while back, offering small community grants. It was hugely successful... We helped so many diverse groups (with) all sorts of things.”

They are looking for groups such as cub scout groups, recreational clubs or school projects. When they last ran the initiative one of the schemes they helped develop was a school gardening programme. 

They aim to help a wide group of organisations make small changes: “We restricted it to £250 so that we can help more people. We’d rather help more people with a small amount than fewer people with a large amount.

“Very often its just a small amount this needed (and) the amount... really doesn’t justify a twenty page application scheme.

“Its about that extra bit of money, (helping) them to fully participate... to put activities on, or provide a sweatshirt etc.”

The community has been very positive about their past schemes, and Amanda hopes they will continue to convey this support: “Rotary has always had a huge amount of support from the town. Thanks to this community we’ve received and have been able to give out over £600,000 since we’ve existed.”

Within 24 hours of posting their application scheme, they received “three absolutely cracking applications”, so hopes are high for the initiative. 

The club will be doing their annual Christmas collections this year, which is a time where they tend to see a lot of donations. 

Amanda added: “The townspeople are hugely generous to us at Christmas time, because we’ve always said whatever we collect at Christmas comes back into the area… we try and use that money to help local clubs, local groups, local charities, and one of the ways we can do that through this scheme (by) putting it back into the community.”