Wetwheels Yorkshire, a charity offering boating experiences for those with disabilities, has received £5,000 to fund adventurous trips from Scarborough and Whitby. The trips will be aboard the charity’s new, specially adapted and fully accessible, power boat.
The donation was provided by the Santander Foundation, which offers Discovery Grants to UK registered charities for projects that help disadvantaged people in local communities.
Wetwheels aims to build the confidence of local people with disabilities by providing the opportunity to access the sea in a fun, safe, stimulating and rewarding way. The charity does this by giving the participants active roles in seamanship including steering the vessel and taking part in navigating the boat.
The grant will fund trips afloat a nine-metre powered catamaran, which is equipped with the latest state of the art marine electronics and is accessible via twin side-opening doors and a ramp. The vessel is designed to take up to ten passengers as far as 20 miles offshore and is created with three wheelchair tie-down positions on the deck for maximum security while out at sea.
Peter Richardson at Wetwheels Yorkshire said: “The Santander Foundation Grant will help ensure that the Yorkshire Coast’s most remarkable environment is now accessible to many more people who would have otherwise been excluded. We are delighted to be able to provide such a wonderful service to the people in our local area.”
Andrew Thompson, Branch Manager at Santander’s Scarborough branch, said: “The Santander Foundation makes hundreds of donations to local projects every year with the aim of assisting organisations, communities and vulnerable people throughout the UK. The staff at our branch know the great work Wetwheels Yorkshire does in our community and we hope this grant will help them in their support for local people.”
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Notes to Editors:
Media Contact:
Leonora Burtenshaw at Santander
Email: Leonora.burtenshaw@santander.co.uk Tel: 020 7756 4543
Peter Richardson at Wetwheels Yorkshire
Email: info@wetwheelsyorkshire.com Tel: 01947 466566
About Wetwheels Yorkshire
Wetwheels builds the confidence of disabled people by providing the opportunity to access the sea in a fun, safe, stimulating and rewarding way using specially modified and fully accessible powerboats.
For more information please visit: www.wetwheelsyorkshire.com
Santander Foundation
The Santander Foundation is at the heart of the Bank’s community activities, providing grants to small charities and social enterprises working with disadvantaged people to fund skills, knowledge and innovation projects across the UK. Discovery Grants of up to £5,000 are available to support three types of activity:
- Explorer: improving people’s knowledge
- Transformer: supporting skills and experience
- Changemaker: innovative solutions to social challenges
Over the last five years, the Santander Foundation has provided £26 million in funding to 13,914 UK charities through Discovery Grants and Staff Matched Donations. For more information please visit: www.santanderfoundation.org.uk
Santander UK is a financial services provider in the UK that offers a wide range of personal and commercial financial products and services. It has brought real competition to the UK, through its innovative products for retail customers and relationship banking model for UK SMEs. At 30 June 2018, the bank has c24,200 employees. It serves around 15 million active customers, via a nationwide branch network, telephone, mobile and online banking; and 64 regional Corporate Business Centres. Santander UK is subject to the full supervision of the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) in the UK. Santander UK plc customers are protected by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) in the UK.