JUMP AND PLAY WITH LINCOLN YOUTH CLUB NOMINATED FOR MAJOR NATIONAL AWARD THIS SATURDAY

YMCA Lincolnshire’s Parkour Club is chasing votes after reaching the finals of the prestigious National Lottery Awards.

The freerunners, based at The Showroom Activity Centre, will battle it out with six other organisations from across the UK to be named Best Sport Project.

They are looking for local and national support throughout the last week of voting.

This Saturday, the team will be holding an outreach event on Lincoln’s Cornhill near the High Street, looking to attract support of passers-by.

As well as The Showroom Parkour Club’s first open Parkour & Freerunning Workshop of the year, fun for all ages will be on offer, including Softplay, Climbing and Sports & Fitness Activities.

The event will run from 10AM to 4PM, with many Activities being free of charge.

They beat off stiff competition from more than 600 applicants to reach the voting stage in this year’s National Lottery Awards – the annual search for the UK’s favourite Lottery-funded projects.

The winners of the seven categories will each get a £3,000 cash prize, an iconic National Lottery Awards trophy and attend a star-studded glittering Awards ceremony in London, broadcast on BBC One in September.

National Lottery funding has enabled the club to buy equipment specifically designed for parkour and run courses for hundreds of local young people.

Joe Hicks, head coach at the Showroom Parkour and Freerunning Club at YMCA Lincolnshire, said: “I am delighted the YMCA Lincolnshire Parkour Club has been nominated for a National Lottery Award. National Lottery funding has enabled us to run parkour courses for hundreds of young people across Lincolnshire.

“Sessions take place at The Showroom Activity Centre where participants are taught how to use natural and adaptive movements to get from one point to another. It brings young people together from across the county from a diverse range of ethnic and social backgrounds. It is a really fantastic project and I hope the public will think so too and vote for us to win a National Lottery Award.”

TV star and actor John Barrowman will be presenting the National Lottery Awards for the sixth time this year. He said: “The National Lottery Awards are a great way to shine a spotlight on outstanding lottery-funded projects. Now in their 13th year, the Awards celebrate the talent and dedication of the amazing staff and volunteers that run incredible life changing Lottery-funded projects for the benefit of their communities.

“These local projects have worked very hard to become finalists and they now need public support because the project with the most votes in each category will be crowned the winner. Projects receive funding thanks to National Lottery players who raise £36 million every single week for Good Causes across the UK.”

To vote for the YMCA Lincolnshire Parkour Club, please go to lotterygoodcauses.org.uk/awards or telephone 0844 8369694 and follow the campaign on twitter: hashtag #NLAwards. Voting runs for four weeks from 9am on Wednesday 22 June until midnight on Wednesday 20 July.

There are seven projects competing for votes across seven categories, reflecting the main areas of National Lottery funding: arts, sport, heritage, health, environment, education and voluntary/charity.