A BMX Club based in Newton Abbot behind the Devon Football Association on Coach Road was awarded with a £200 Youth Sports Grant.

The £1,000 sports award was split into five smaller awards and given by The Rotary Newton Abbot, who teamed up with Mid-Devon Advertiser to promote the awards.

Decoy BMX Club Welfare Officer, Danielle Hooper, applied for this award.

Evaluated by three Rotarians and Editor of the paper Nick Knight, Decoy were successfully contacted earlier in the month to be told it had been selected as one of the applications for the award.

The cheque was presented by Rotarian Nick James, who came down to the club on their RAD race event day – (a three local club racing event running through the winter before the BMX season begins), was amazed at the set up and how much it was used by the local community.

With more than 200 active Club Memberships and 47+ riders who raced for the Club last year, Decoy a non-profit Club originally opened in December 1998 after two years of planning and building and is today run solely by volunteers who all have full time jobs elsewhere, was totally made up to receive the cheque.

Vice chairman Lee Kirby said: ‘This is a great starting point for us this year in terms of being awarded money for the club.

‘There is a huge number of new members coming through at the moment particularly following on from the Olympics last year with BMXers Kye Whyte and Bethany Shriever, so this money will help towards the costs of increasing the Clubs potential and making sure we have enough bikes, equipment and sessions being held for its members and those we want to encourage from the community to come on down to the track to give it a go.

‘We are really delighted and thank Rotary for choosing us.’

After the pandemic hit back in early 2020 and following the guidance from Government, the club like many other businesses and no-profit organisations was forced to close when the country went into Lockdown. This impacted the Club and its riders and the whole BMX Community immensely.

Being run by Volunteers having people hit with covid, families isolating, and lockdowns the full racing season and some events were unable to go ahead, hit the club hard like many others.

Decoy sadly lost some of its members, families whose children lost interest in the sport, or felt after nearly 18 months of not racing couldn’t get back into the sport because of age or other factors impacting a lot of families due to Covid.

Unfortunately, the club also took a knock when massive renovation work on the track which took years of planning and saving was rescheduled due to lockdowns, which meant during the summer the peak season they had to forgo the use of their Club.

Despite this and renovation project being set back, Decoy finally opened its gates again late Summer 2021 and has since seen the Club grow and take off again.

Decoy BMX Club offers weekday and weekend open sessions for all ages and abilities, coaching sessions for those on balance bikes or those who have never been on a bike before, to those who perhaps have ridden but not on a BMX track.

They hold special sessions for their riders who race Regionally and Nationally, with some riders currently training to represent the club and their Country for the UCI BMX World Championships which is being held in France later this year.

Decoy also offer special events during the year with half term events like the wonderful Halloween and Christmas week where families could bring and leave their children with coaches for a fun day of riding and crafts for a small fee

All of these events and sessions the club holds are put together by the committee and volunteers for the children and families local to the area.

The Club even has families who have memberships as far as Plymouth who ride. Decoy BMX is an inclusive club to all. They are open to all ages, genders and abilities and discriminate against no-one.

Every bit of fundraising or grant awards and applications like the Rotary were offering, help towards the cost of bikes that families who don’t have them can hire, safety equipment like helmets and gloves which new riders to the track would need before getting into the sport and go towards the costs of hiring coaches for the events held during half terms and summer holidays.

If any companies would be interested in sponsorship or advertising around the track and via their social media sites, please get in touch.

To contact the club call club secretary Sharon Avery on 07970 5066279. You can also find the Decoy BMX Club on facebook or email [email protected]