The following is a letter from the Ashton Bears explaining what has happen to their club. Please help in any way you can.

"Please allow me to introduce ourselves; Ashton Bears is an amateur rugby league club based in Ashton in Makerfield. We play a vital role in the local community providing the opportunity for all ages from 4 upwards, to be involved in and play the game of Rugby League. Since the revival of our junior section in 2011 we have created teams at Cubs, Under 7, Under 8, Under 9, Under 10, Under 12 and most recently a girls team. All members of the club are volunteers who work tirelessly to ensure that the club runs successfully and that we create and sustain a welcoming and accessible environment where people have the opportunity to grow and develop both on and off the pitch.

The reason for my letter is to explain our situation and to ask for your help. In the early hours of Sunday 9th February, the alarm was raised that our clubhouse was on fire. The fire brigade attended but over 50% of the building was either destroyed or rendered unsafe. It is fair to say that as a club and Committee we are devastated by the loss of most of our facilities. Our distress has been compounded as we had received £50,000 via a Sport England grant to improve our facilities and this work had just been completed ready for the season starting on 1st March.

The club is the cornerstone of the local community and we now face a significant rebuild project to literally enable us to ‘rise from the ashes’ and to continue to provide sporting opportunities in the local community. Whilst we have lost the majority of our memorabilia from throughout our history we are looking to the future and remaining positive about making new memories within the community.

We are immensely proud to be a part of the “rugby league family” and know full well that times are hard; however we are asking that each club considers the possibility of donating up to £100 which cumulatively would make a massive impact on the huge task ahead.

Therefore, we are looking for you to help to make our rebuild project a success either by making a donation, donating prizes, gifts, vouchers or items from your business that we can use during the various events we are already planning as part of this fund. All donations will be gratefully received – we are in the process of setting up our action plan in the first instance to make the club structurally safe and then work on rebuilding the area. In return we will promote your company’s assistance by acknowledging your donation on the club’s website and via our various other forms of social media.

If you are able to contribute to our worthwhile cause I would greatly appreciate it if you could contact me on 07841 120 381 or by email at madelinelt@hotmail.com. If necessary I can make arrangements to collect your donation. If you are able to provide a financial donation we have a gift aid page set up which can be found at https://www.justgiving.com/yimby/Ashtonbears or you can make a donation in to the clubs paypal account which is ashtonbears@outlook.com. This is an excellent opportunity to raise the profile of your business within the local community, whilst supporting the foundation of rugby league in Ashton. The support that you can offer us really does make a difference to the continued success of the club during these difficult times and we would be extremely grateful for any donation or sponsorship, large or small.

For further information about Ashton Bears and to keep updated about our situation you can visit www.ashtonbearsarlfc.com or join us on facebook: Ashton Bears ARLFC or on twitter: @Ashtonbears

I look forward to hearing from you and hope your company can support our community group in our hour of need.

Kind Regards,

Madeline Millett
Club Secretary, for an on behalf of Ashton Bears ARLFC"