Wide Bay Gymnastics jump for joy over new facilities

Members of Wide Bay Gymnastics Club are doing cartwheels over the renovations to its change room facilities.

Federal Member for Hinkler Keith Pitt said Wide Bay Gymnastics Club had been awarded $11,750 to upgrade its changing rooms under the Federal Government’s Stronger Communities Programme.

“This will make the facilities for Wide Bay Gymnastics Club’s 300 members much more usable,” Mr Pitt said.

“The Stronger Communities Programme has been a boost for community groups and organisations like Wide Bay Gymnastics Club that would otherwise struggle to generate the funding for this type of work to be done.”

Wide Bay Gymnastics Club Vice-President Linda Ryan said the building that houses the club was more than 20 years old and the changing rooms needed to be freshened up.

“The toilet and bathroom facilities were old and run-down and these wet areas desperately needed to be refurbished for use by members, school participants and visitors,” Ms Ryan said.

The renovation included replacing the existing toilets, hand basins, tapware, and lights and retiling the entire area.

“It’s already looking so much better and now there is some painting to be done by members to finish it off.”

Ms Ryan said once the renovation was complete, the toilets and bathroom wet areas will only need routine maintenance for the next 10 years.

She said the next step for Wide Bay Gymnastics Club was to upgrade some of the gymnastics equipment so it can host sanctioned events in 2017.

Through the Stronger Communities Programme, eligible community groups can apply for grants of between $5,000 and $20,000 for small capital projects. All applications need to commit at least matching funding or in-kind contributions.

Each Federal Electorate is allocated $150,000 a year over two years. Applications for Round Two have now closed. For more information go to www.infrastructure.gov.au/SCP