Kit out the Nation
Published: Friday, 3 September, 2021
As children go back to school, an appeal has been made for sports kit which they have grown out of.
Organisations across the district are taking part in BBC’s ‘Kit out the Nation’ campaign. It’s a month long Make a Difference campaign running from Saturday 4th September to 2nd October. It aims to take in and distribute unwanted, good condition sports kit and sports clothing and deliver to children and teenagers who need it most.
The Department for Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee published a report on 29th July 2021 where they said data from Sport England showing 100,000 fewer children met the recommended level of activity in 2020 than in 2019 was "of significant concern".
We have multiple organisations across the Stroud district which are taking part in Kit out the Nation. These include;
- The Pulse, Dursley
- GL11 community Hub, Cam
- The Keepers Community Hub, Wotton
- Cainscross Town Council, community hub
- Stratford Park Leisure Centre, Stroud
Kit can be dropped off at any of these locations during the campaign. Each organisation should be updating their website to show when you can drop off the kit. We will be linking with business2schools to help with the distribution of the kit, so if your school is not registered encourage them to sign up https://www.business2schools.com/schools and they will benefit from the kit we collect.
“Access to sports and exercise kit and clothing can be difficult when it comes to affordability. This is a great opportunity to donate unwanted kit which will be provided to the younger generation who are in need it.” said Community Services and Licensing Committee Chair Chris Brine.
Angela Gillingham, Stroud District Council Project Manager for Leisure, Health and Wellbeing said: “We are proud to be supporting Kit out the Nation. We know that there is so much good condition equipment in people’s cupboards that we could make use of. Rather than it collects dust or worse, go to landfill, we’re asking people to donate and help a young person get active.”
BBC previously held the Give a Laptop – another Make a Difference campaign. This distributed almost 100,000 laptops to schools across England, and donations continue to come in.
For more information on the campaign, see here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/1RvmVJyvX0PYv2vxG4rRbQS/kit-out-the-nation