Parrett & Axe Lodge Support Local Community Boxing Club in Crewkerne
The Parrett & Axe Lodge No 814, like many other lodges support local charities and associations, and with this in mind visited the Crewkerne Boxing Club to make a modest donation.
The brethren were impressed to see well over 50 boys and girls or varying ages, who were exercising and enjoying the training and disciplines associated with boxing. They were equally as impressed to see adults groups attending, with everyone taking part and enjoying this excellent club.
Here’s some background on the Crewkerne Boxing Club from Larry Mills, the president/head coach of the club.
Crewkerne Boxing club is a non-profitable organisation that is run by volunteers.
Our volunteers have all been involved in the boxing scene for many years and are highly experienced, trained and qualified in line with the governing body, England Boxing to whom we are proudly affiliated.
Primarily we are a boxing club who train a wide range of members of our local community from ages 5yrs to 50yrs, to take part in the sport of boxing and benefit from the high quality fitness that this sport requires. Although we are primarily a boxing club, behind the scenes we are so much more.
We offer the local children, youths and young adults in our community a safe place to train, socialise and develop their life skills. The boxing scene appeals to people from all lifestyles but it does have a larger following from youngsters and teens who have had a harder start to life, be it from, parents splitting up, behavioural problems or abusive backgrounds. Many of the participants at our club have had difficult family lives. The sense of community that our boxing club provides has helped meet the young people’s need to be part of a family.
Boxing is such a physically demanding and ‘gritty’ sport that requires great commitment and is seen as a credible sport to participate in amongst young people from deprived communities. It is a demanding sport that teaches values and skills such as discipline, mental strength, control and the ability to take personal responsibility.
These are all skills that can be used to overcome social problems. We as a club teach the participant to re-channel their life problems, mental health issues and teach them how they can stay calm and manage their aggression whilst in a difficult situation.
As a child, I found myself in many of the situations as the young people referred to above and have used boxing to turn my life around. This has meant that myself and our club have a particular appeal to the young people in our community and as coaches we have become role models and are showing the kids and adults how they could turn their lives around and become positive contributors to society.
In the last 3 months we have had over 250 attendances at our club. The majority of our attendees are children 16 yrs and below. We have had as many as 70 people through the door in one evening across 3 different age classes, from 5-50yrs. There is no other club in our community that allows such a diverse range of skills to be learnt and developed for such a wide range of ages. Our classes have increased significantly and they are steadily increasing every week.
The success of our club has lead us to pursue a new premises, we have been given the use of an old empty barn that is being renovated for us and paid for by local companies such as Western Power Distribution and Bradford’s to name a few. The renovation project will take place on the 16th of May 2022 for 5 days and will be covered by Western powers media team as well as the local papers.
We have also had recognition for providing help in community and received donation from Crewkerne Town Council.
As generous as all the above is we are still struggling to pay for equipment for the new premises and to fund the major events lined up for our boxers this year such as the England boxing National Championships in Barnsley, Golden Girl Championships in Sweden and the Mtk Global Boxing Cup in Glasgow.
All these events are high profile and will be live streamed globally. We are trying to offer our younger members the best possible opportunities to release their full potentials. We have several rising stars at our club and believe that they will achieve the title of English National Champions this May, putting our little town on the map.
Larry Mills
Crewkerne Boxing Club
https://www.facebook.com/crewkerneboxingclub
