Exeter City Community Trust – Weekly Round Up

It was a fantastic weekend at the Exeter Quayside as we welcomed over six hundred runners to the Exeter Half Marathon. Headline Sponsored by Tozers, the two day event was sold out and witnessed several personal bests from our competitors.

Saturday’s event was won by Jacob Maddison, with Rosie Mew heading the Women’s section. James Pugsley was our Male Winner on Sunday, with Florence Sargent the Female Winner. We were also delighted to welcome Exeter City Manager Gary Caldwell and his coaching team to the event, after a long journey to Burton the previous day, Gary, Assistant Manager Kevin Nicholson, and several of the coaching team were raising money for Darby Rimmer MND Foundation, alongside our own charitable efforts. The raised total had exceeded £3,000 on Monday morning and will be a significant benefit to both causes. A big Thank You to Gary and team for their participation.

With the Half Marathon so popular, there is no better time to book your next event. Granite Way is now only a month away and, with a ten and twenty mile option, the event is a great way to keep your momentum and keep achieving your goals.

Granite Way Run 2023 – Exeter City Community Trust (exetercct.org)

Cans4City, Exeter City Football Club (ECFC) and Exeter City Council’s scheme, which encourages Exeter football fans to recycle used drink cans whilst also raising money for charity, has now raised more than £10,000. All of the funds raised have gone towards projects and initiatives run both by the football club and ourselves.

Over the years, the Cans4City team has collected more than 12.5 tonnes of aluminium packaging – equivalent to 700,000 cans – which has helped fund donations towards a football kit for refugee team Exeter United, a mental health awareness programme for the ECFC Academy, purchasing a defibrillator for Cliff Hill training ground, as well as a number of improvements to St James Park and its Memorial Garden, and much more.

Every Can Counts is a unique partnership formed between drink can manufacturers, drink can fillers and the wider recycling industry, all with the goal of reaching a 100 per cent recycling rate for drink cans. The programme provides free recycling support to businesses and organisations around the UK. To find out more information about Every Can Counts and the benefits of recycling drink cans, visit www.everycancounts.co.uk.

You can support Cans4City by dropping off your empty cans at one of the scheme’s recycling collection points, which include the Red Square at St James’ Park, as well as at the Old Tiverton Road Co-op, and The Devon Yeoman pub on Beacon Lane.

At Exeter City we understand the challenges faced by many people across our city every day, and to help support our community, we have developed a range of free activities for people of all ages.

These are all on offer through our Extra Time Hub, which is based at the Grecian Centre at St James Park, offering a space for people to meet up, keep warm and take part in activity.

The activities include:

· Social Café -Tuesday, 10.30am – noon

· Community Lounge – Tuesday and Thursday, noon – 4pm

· Sporting Memories – Thursday, 10am – noon

Our Community Lounge; a free, warm and welcoming space, with free hot drinks for all attendees, is open to people of all ages. Whether you want to relax and watch television, read the paper or play some games with others, just drop in. There will also be a dedicated children’s area with toys and games.

The Community Lounge is open on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 12pm until 4pm.

Jenna Berry, wellbeing lead at Exeter City Community Trust, said: “As a supporter-owned football club we put our community at the heart of everything we do. We understand that many people have been severely impacted by both the increase in cost of living and the energy crisis. We are aiming to respond to the needs of our community by providing a warm space for visitors over the next three months.

“We are opening up the community lounge to all and we will be providing lots of activities – whether that is toys for toddlers, or games and jigsaw puzzles for the older members of our community. Everyone is welcome and importantly the provision is completely free.”

The Grecian Centre is also the location for the social café, which takes place on Tuesdays from 10.30am until noon. The social cafe is open to anyone who would like to spend time with others in a relaxed environment.

Jenna added: “We know that many people have missed out on social interaction during the pandemic, and may need some time to get used to going out and about again. The social cafe is a friendly place to come together and enjoy a conversation over a cuppa.

“We have a range of activities on offer each week such as games, quizzes, art and crafts, guest speakers and gentle exercise sessions. We want to be led and inspired by attendees so we are always open to any ideas, hobbies or interests that you might like to share with others.”

And finally, Sporting Memories, which caters for older men, takes place every Thursday from 10am until noon. It’s perfect for men who enjoy reminiscing about their experiences of watching or playing sport.

The club is a friendly, welcoming environment that is open to all. Many of the participants attend to enjoy the company of other older sports fans. Some of our members live with dementia or have memory problems, some have experienced depression, or may have had a stroke or live with Parkinson’s, but they all have one thing in common – a love for sport and the enjoyment from discussing their favourite sporting moments over a cup of tea and cake. It is always great fun and there is lots of laughter in the sessions. New friendships are forged and some remarkable sporting stories often emerge.

You can drop into all of the above free activities, with no need to book in advance. Or visit exetercct.org for more information.

Our Holiday Clubs are up and running for the February Half Term, with our Exeter Clubs selling out over the five days. If you are still looking for fun, football, activities for your child this week, sessions in North Devon and Exmouth are still available. You can book your place today

Exeter City Community Trust – Exeter’s leading health and wellbeing charity (exetercct.org)