The Well Being of Yeovil Cummunity Association

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At the 4 Feb 2010 meeting the committee agreed to support:

Yeovil Community Church Ski Centre project

We were able to give advice to the Church leaders regarding the planning for this new project.

Yeovil Lions Club/Fiveways School

We agreed to support the lions Club project to provide a horse riding simulator for Fiveways School. This is in addition to the grant awarded to Fiveways in 2008 for their new swimming pool.

We have recently received donations of £500 from Battens Solicitors and Old Mills Financial Services.

At the 22 October 2009 quarterly meeting the Executive Committee agreed to make the following grants:

Bucklers Mead School, Yeovil

A grant of £5000 was awarded to the school as a contribution to the new all weather flood lit football pitch. The cost of the total project was £530,000 and was funded by a grant from the Football Foundation of £330,000 with the balance funded by the school from the proceeds of the sale of surplus land for housing. The facility which is open until 10pm will be available to the general public and the three 5 a side pitches incorporated within the main pitch will be used by the local primary schools.

Oddment Theatre Company, Yeovil

A grant of £600 was awarded to enable them to purchase an Optoma 4500 projector, the total cost of the project which includes the screen is £2700, this will help them improve their presentations to local schools and community groups. They have also received grants from Yeovil Town Council and SSDC.

Nether/Over Compton Play area

There is no children’s play area in the Comptons, the PCC have agreed to provide a site and equipment is now needed. A grant of £965 was awarded to provide a swing with 2 seats and a baby seat.

Mudford Village Hall renovation stage 2

A grant of £1000 was awarded. The total cost of the project is £160,000; they have received grants of £70,000 but need to fund raise the outstanding balance.

St Margaret’s Somerset Hospice, Yeovil

The Yeovil Hospice in order to continue providing the highest standard of care needs to purchase a bladder scanner. This state of the art piece of equipment negates the need for patients to be catheterised. A grant of £5500 was awarded to enable the Hospice to purchase the scanner.

At the June 2009 meeting the Executive Committee awarded the following grants:

William Ruddock almshousesc East Coker

£500 was awarded to a new bathroom project.

South St Centre Yeovil

A grant of £400 was awarded to purchase a news laptop Computer

St Peters Carnival Club Yeovil

£300 contribution towards communication equipment

Threshold Prize

Grant for £70 for a new printer

At the 5 February 2009 quarterly meeting of the Executive Committee awarded the following Grants totalling £11,456:

Yeovil Shopmobility

A grant of £375 was awarded as a contribution towards the cost of a large size scooter. (Total cost £750).

Yeovil Pregnancy Crisis Centre

A grant of £677 was awarded for a Video projector

Milford Community Hall, Milford Rd, Yeovil

£5,000 was awarded as a contribution towards the cost of this £550,000 upgrade.

South Street Centre, Yeovil

£500 was awarded for building refurbishment.

Haselbury Plucknett First School

A grant of £300 was awarded as a contribution towards the cost of a green house.

Headway House, Yeovil

Two grants were awarded, £330 for gardening equipment and £274 for the fitness programme.

Yeovil Olympiads

Up to £4,000 was awarded as a contribution towards the cost of the building that will house the photo finish equipment.

Retired businessman is at the heart of Yeovil life
Western Gazette, Friday, January 16, 2009

NEARLY 30 years ago a group of local businessmen got together to help charitable causes.

The year was 1980 and 20 companies each contributed £5,000 to form the Wellbeing of Yeovil Club.

Since then it has donated more than £150,000 towards local groups and projects. Taking into account mergers and acquisitions, about ten businesses are still involved and it continues to thrive.

Founder member and current chairman Tim Chappell, who was managing director of Denners department store at the time, remains at the heart of Yeovil life despite retiring and selling the business to Beales on his retirement in 1999.

He said: "The criteria is the group must be within eight miles of the town centre and we make a pledge of a contribution towards the cost of a project but not pay for it in total.

"I started as a member and took over as chairman 20 years ago. We have a quarterly meeting where applications for grant assistance will be debated and decided on."

In 2007 alone it gave £26,822 in the form of 17 grants and among the recent projects to have benefited are Yeovil Day Centre, Martock Tennis CLub, Sutton Bingham Canoe Club, Freewheelers emergency service motorcycle group and Yeovil Sports and social club.

Mr Chappell, who remains as committed to the role as ever and was made an MBE for his work in 2000, said: "I will stay as long as is physically possible. They cannot find anyone else to do it. I am a retired guy and I know a lot of people in Yeovil and it is a nice thing to do.

"As long as our big supporters, such as Westland and Bradfords, continue to be as generous as they are then we can keep going. If they do not, we will have to close, so, in that sense, we are quite vulnerable in this current financial climate but we hope our supporters remain strong financially.

"There have been some changes over the years. Members have come and gone and we have picked up one or two new members recently."

"There is nothing in particular that we support. One big project we have given money to is the Yew Tree playground project, with £5,000 to buy a piece of play equipment."

The work of the club can be seen all over town.

Mr Chappell said: "The biggest contribution we have made historically was when the English Schools Championship came to Yeovil Athletics Track. It needed to be eight lanes and we gave £80,000 to get it up to international standard."

He has lived in Nether Compton for 30 years. He was MD at Denners for 27 years, which was his wife Penny's family business since 1926 and she worked with him as fashion director as they built the business up together.

He said: "My business was in Yeovil and I worked in Yeovil and my heart is in Yeovil. It is where it has always been."

He is currently the Yeovil representative on the Somerset Community Foundation – another grant-giving scheme.

"They asked me as I knew the Yeovil business community," he said.

Among the other groups he is involved in is Yeovil Rotary Club, of which he is a member and he was chairman of the town centre partnership for around three years when it first began.

"The first time Yeovil had a town centre manager I was involved with the district council in its appointment and I chaired the monthly meetings," he said.

Mr Chappell was also the chairman of the St Margaret's Hospice appeal, which raised £2.5M for the facility to be built in Yeovil. He worked closely alongside the late Leo Hayward, who spearheaded the fund-raising drive, and he remains vice-president.

He said: "I think there is always a doubt when you do something like this whether there is a need but, since it opened, we have proved there definitely was a need for a hospice in Yeovil.

"That is the most satisfying aspect. Often with big builds you can be left with a white elephant but that has not been the case for the hospice.

"As vice-president I attend the odd event and organise a lunch each year at Wincanton racecourse and am there as and when I am called on."

Despite such heavy involvement within the community Mr Chappell still finds time to play golf three times a week and is an ex-captain of Yeovil Golf Club. His other passion is national hunt racing and he has owned horses that have been trained at Paul Nicholls' award-winning yard in Ditcheat.

He has two sons and five grandchildren.