Donation keeps SEN martial arts classes running

The donation of a new air conditioning and heating unit will prevent classes for children with special educational needs at a Westbury martial arts gym from being cancelled during extreme weather.

Team Rollo, a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu gym based at Oakfield Business Centre, received the new unit worth £10,000 from Panasonic after gym member and Panasonic employee Luke Harris-Anton suggested the idea to his manager.

“We work closely with a number of Special Educational Needs (SEN) children who have shown incredible progress both inside and outside the gym,” said gym owner Stuart Barclay. “This summer has been challenging, as we had to close multiple times due to the heat, which disrupted the vital routines of our SEN students.”

The new unit will help the gym continue sessions throughout the year and reduce barriers for young people.

Team Rollo’s mission is to develop a charity element of the gym to give back to the community and make sessions as accessible as possible.

Owners Stuart and Abi say Jiu Jitsu can make people feel “incredible” and help give people a focus, promote self-esteem and encourage pride in their community.

“Our aim is to establish a CIC arm of the business to secure funding and subsidise training for less fortunate youth in Westbury, keeping them engaged in a positive activity,” said Stuart. “Ideally, we would love to have some people not pay anything and it be something to give them opportunities they wouldn’t ordinarily have.

“Keeping prices low is really difficult in the current climate due to running costs being so high! In order to qualify for grants to help certain groups of people, we need to be a CIC. The other option is to reach out to local businesses for sponsorship of some kind. But either way, being able to keep offering such low-cost memberships needs external help financially.”

For more information about the gym, visit https://www.teamrollo.co.uk/

Pictured l-r: Marcin from JobDone 365, Daniel Clare from Panasonic, Stuart and Luke