Crossbar Foundation to benefit from Three Peaks Challenge

More than 60 staff, apprentices and students from a Shropshire sports coaching company will put their best foot forward to take part in the Three Peaks Challenge to raise funds for the Crossbar Foundation.

A contingent from Crossbar Coaching Education in Sport will don their walking boots this Sunday to climb The Long Mynd, Stiperstones and The Wrekin.  

Organisers hope to raise around £6,000 for the Crossbar Foundation, a charity launched last August to support the quality and lives of young people in communities across Shropshire, often through sporting initiatives.

Andy Smith, the community development manager of the Foundation, said: “There will be 20 coaches, 20 apprentices and 22 BTEC students from the Crossbar Performance Academy taking part, so there will certainly be an army of us.

“We will start at The Long Mynd and then head over to Stiperstones before finishing at The Wrekin. We plan to adopt our motto of 'together we achieve more' and, ideally, we want to try and complete the challenge in under 12 hours.

“One of the coaches, Kevin Sandwith, will be taking part in the Shrewsbury 10K earlier in the day before catching us up for the Three Peaks Challenge, which is a brilliant effort.”

Andy, who is looking forward to the challenge, said Crossbar team members had been training hard to be in the best condition for Sunday.

He added: “We will be travelling together to the three different venues by bus so there will be a strong team spirit and everyone has got their donation pages up and running, more than 60 of them, so there is plenty of chance for family, friends and people on social media to donate.

“If everyone can raise £100 each we would be looking at a total figure of around £6,000, which would be absolutely brilliant to enhance the work we are doing in many communities around the county.

“It will allow us to start new clubs and offer some of the children in deprived communities in Shrewsbury and Telford free places to courses, clubs and trips, and some of the engagement they are not able to have which will help with their emotional, social and physical development. 

“We will also be linking in again with Shrewsbury Food Hub and they will supply things like fresh fruit, which will be essential to keep the team going.

“It will be an interesting challenge and it’s one we are looking forward to.”

Pictured: Ready to put their best foot forward for charity this weekend is Crossbar Coaching Education in Sport’s Jamie Haynes, left, and Gavin Cowan, with, centre, Andy Smith from the Crossbar Foundation.