Falcon Spartak Gymnastics Club, based in Hurstmere School in Sidcup, was founded in 1973 and ever since has catered for Gymnasts of all standards and ages with particular success coming with those gymnasts with special needs.

Andrew Bull, the father of 9 year old Joshua who regularly attends the Saturday session, is a Freemason who attends the Bostall Heath Lodge in Welling, Kent. Joshua was born with Downs Syndrome and has benefited greatly from the work done by the coaches at the club. The Lodge had previously made a donation to the club and Nigel Wooldridge, the Lodge’s Charity Steward, approached the Provincial Charity Committee and applied for a Major Grant from the Province of West Kent.

The application was approved and on March 19th Falcon Spartak was the very grateful recipient of a cheque for £1,000.00 to help fund some much needed replacement equipment.

Kay Salter, the Chairman and Senior Coach said, “As with all small sports clubs, funding is an issue and so we rely greatly on fundraising and charitable donations to continue to run our 4 weekly sessions. “ There are about 50 gymnasts taking part in the clubs disability programme, two of these are National Disability Rhythmic champions and 6 are in National Disability Squads. Four of the gymnasts have represented Great Britain in competition and over 30 represented the club at the Gymnaestrada held in Austria in 2009. Recently Hannah Westerman has been selected to represent Great Britain at the 2015 Special Olympics World Games being held in Los Angeles, USA.

Nigel Wooldridge said “Charity is at the very heart of Freemasonry and so it is a great pleasure for the Lodge to be able to help such a worthy local cause such as this. As an organisation as a whole The Freemasons’ Grand Charity has donated over £100 million since 1980.”

To find out more about Falcon Spartak Gymnastics Club please visit http://www.falconspartak.com Based on information supplied by Andrew Bull.