DUNMOW'S Round Table has stretched the purse strings for yet another sports club as part of their Cash for Causes Scheme. The benefactors this time are the Dunmow Gymnastics club who have received £550 from the club as they bid to expand. Club founder She

DUNMOW'S Round Table has stretched the purse strings for yet another sports club as part of their Cash for Causes Scheme.

The benefactors this time are the Dunmow Gymnastics club who have received £550 from the club as they bid to expand.

Club founder Shelley Woods explains: "We have just passed our one year anniversary and have grown from strength to strength doubling our total gymnasts from 36 to 72 per week."

Mrs Woods started the club when she moved to Felsted in October 2006, she said: "I looked into starting a gym and liaised with the leisure centre to begin in March 2007." A taster day held in advance proved to be really popular and children joined from all around the area. Since then the club has acquired two qualified instructors which helped to boost numbers and cater for an ever growing waiting list.

All this culminated in the club seeking to extend its reach and fulfil its potential by the way of funding. Mrs Woods said: "We approached the Round Table as it is a local society that one of te gymnasts parents mentioned as being a possibility of sourcing cash from. We had two failed attempts at our own fund raising and decided that if we could source a donation it would really kick us off."

The club want to use the donation as a lever for bigger and better things and from the end of spring they will be planning a major event to start raising £10,000 inside 18 months to enter gymnasts into local competitions.

Round Table Chairman Shaun Pledger said: "We decided to offer support to the Dunmow Gymnastics Club because it is a young club that is providing a great outlet for local children of various ages. We were particularly impressed by the club's ambition and the fact that they are very pro-active at their own fund raising. We hope our donation of £550 will enable them to entre many competitions and bring back success to Great Dunmow.