Ellen Hagland, who has worked at our store in Ebbw Vale for 19 years, applied through the employee grant application initiative to support Cwmbran Kyokushinkai Karate with a £500 donation.
Cwmbran Kyokushinkai Karate teaches Kyokushinkai to all ages, which is the largest style of Karate in the world, with over 16 million practitioners. Members of the club compete at a local, national and international level. It’s a comfortable environment, encouraging and enabling young people to stay fit and healthy and to develop their skills.
Since establishing in 2010, Cwmbran Kyokushinkai Karate has already produced two Great Britain International competitors and 14 Welsh International competitors.
The not-for-profit group is run entirely by volunteers and strives to keep the costs of running the club to a minimum, recognising that affordability is an important factor. Any funds that the club receives, is put towards supporting young people who have to travel to take part in competitions all over the country and abroad.
Gareth Rowlands, Founder of Cwmbran Kyokushinkai Karate said:
“I founded Cwmbran Karate Kyokushinkai in September 2010 after it became too much travelling with my daughters to Cardiff to train twice a week. We looked for a local Karate club to train at, hopefully to cut down the time and expense of travelling. To our amazement there were none of a high enough standard to accommodate our needs.
There is very little funding available, parents have to support their children to compete in all competitions. Cwmbran Karate is a non-profit organisation so as such all entry fees are paid from training fees. Being such a successful club with many competitors in all competitions, means there is very little in the bank account.
We’d like to say thank you to the Pavers Foundation for this donation, which will help secure the Clubs continued success”.
Ellen Hagland, Customer Advisor at Pavers said:
“I chose to support Cwmbran Karate as my son has been a part of this club for 8 years. Over these years he has grown in confidence and has become an accomplished student, who the younger students look up to. He has travelled the world with the club, competing in karate fighting/kata competitions and also in the welsh team too. We’re hoping next year he will make it into the GB squad! His next step is achieving his black belt, which he is working hard towards attaining, at summer camp in August.
Thanks to the Pavers Foundation for the grant once again it will help many young people at Cwmbran karate".
We’re delighted to be able to support Cwmbran Kyokushinkai Karate and wish Ellen’s son the best of luck in his quest for a Black Belt and for making the GB team!
