Craigavon Lakers Wheelchair Basketball Club awarded £1,000 from Centra Choices Community Fund to expand club

The funding, from the Centra Choices Community Fund, will also be used to encourage more people with a physical disability to get involved at a grassroots level.

The £5,000 Centra Choices Community Fund was launched by the convenience retailer as part of the Centra Choices campaign, celebrating the choices that define people.

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The campaign focused on four behaviours that promote happiness in people - Positivity, Kindness, Respect and Attitude.

Applicants for the grants had to demonstrate how their group benefits the wider community and how their work aligns with one of the four behaviours celebrated in the campaign. With five individual pots of £1,000 available, Craigavon Lakers Wheelchair Basketball Club was selected from more than 150 applicants.

Craigavon Lakers Wheelchair Basketball Club provides individuals with a physical disability the chance to be able to take part in sport and recreation. Their aim is to encourage males and females aged 13 and over with a physical disability to take part in the sport.

Sarah Cousins, Craigavon Lakers coach said: “Craigavon Lakers is all about opening up doors to disabled athletes and providing an important outlet in the community for physical activity among disabled people. To buy your own sports wheelchair to participate in a sport like this can be a massive barrier to entry for people, so we maintain our own small fleet of chairs that players can use. The grant from Centra enables us to add to that fleet and bring wheelchair basketball to even more people, and we are incredibly grateful.”

Jennifer Morton, Centra brand manager, added: “At Centra, we choose community. We launched this fund to give back to the neighbourhoods in which we operate and show support at a grassroots level. I am thrilled to see Craigavon Lakers Wheelchair Basketball Club as one of the five recipients of this fund. We hope this money will help them to continue their important and life-changing work.”

Community groups Keady First Responders, The Hygiene Bank Moira, Hands That Talk and St Matthews GAC Drumsurn have also been awarded Choices grants.