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Folkestone Sea Sauna published their Delivery Report!10 months ago
Delivered 15 January 2023
Impact data and claims within this report are provided by the project creator and have not been independently verified by Spacehive.
We will install a permanent community sauna on the seafront between Folkestone and Hythe to give swimmers a place to change, warm up and promote cold water and sauna therapy to the wider community.
Folkestone Sea Sauna is a community group, for and by the local sea swimming community. Our aim is to continue to build on and enhance the sea swimming community and make cold water therapy and sauna use accessible and affordable for all. Open water swimming activity in the UK has been on a steady increase over the past decade, with numbers rising dramatically during the COVID-19 pandemic. As well as access for Rowing Club Members we will be offering regular open days to non-members, and special free sessions for local charities and groups such as Mind and TouchBase.
What we'll deliver:
Why it's a great idea:
Over the past decade, more research has gone into cold water therapy and the many positive effects it has on our mental and physical health. Folkestone and Hythe has developed a thriving sea swimming community over the past few years. Their Facebook group ‘FOLKESTONE SEA SWIMMERS’ has grown such that it now has well over 1,400 members. A sauna will give this community a space to meet up and warm up. It will also encourage more people to give sea swimming a go and promote a healthy lifestyle. Folkestone Rowing Club has a concrete garage-like building available, which is currently used for storage. We plan to refurbish and refit the building with a sauna. Through an affordable membership scheme we will make traditional Scandinavian cold water and sauna therapy available to the local sea swimming community and anyone else who wants to give it a go.
Steps to get it done:
Gallery
Journey
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It’s been a while since we've been in touch but we've been busy getting the sauna up and running and had a few teething problems in January when the wristbands was delayed, the ceiling had to be reconstructed, we needed to do some repairs on the benches and get our heads round how the sauna controller works. But thankfully, all seems to be bumping along nicely now. We've got around 40 members so far and hope to recruit more in the near future. Our committee has also expanded as some of our members has stepped forward to help with different tasks of the day-to-day running such as operation, survey, social media, website, database and more. We're having our next open day on Sunday 5 March. If you are in the area, please come down and check it out. Open day means free for everyone who wants to try the sauna. On other days, the sauna is only open to members. But if you are a friend, family member or just a genuine supporter who won’t be taking up membership but supported us because you thought it was a great idea and wanted us to succeed, you are very welcome to come down for a visit. Please contact Peter Blach if you know when you would like to visit and we'll try to organise for someone to give you the tour. As with every new venture, we are learning as we go and we've just send out a survey to our mailing list to ask about the most convenient opening hours. We’ve also realised we want a cold shower outside the sauna and the committee has been discussing the possibility of getting solar panels to help generate electricity for the heater. If you're interested in knowing more you can always head towards our website where you can sign up for membership and sign up for our newsletter. And finally, you can join our Facebook Group and instagram feed if you want to see what’s going on. A heartfelt thank you from all of us on the committee for your support. We could not have done it without you, our 179 backers. It was an amazing project and it showed what is possible when you manage to get the support from the community. We hope to serve this very community for years to come and become an open and friendly meeting hob for people who loves cold water therapy and relaxing in a sauna during the winter. www.folkestoneseasauna.com www.facebook.com/FolkestoneSeaSauna @folkestoneseasauna
On the 3rd December 2022, from 17:00-19:00, the new community sauna from FOLKESTONE SEA SAUNA, will be unveiled. This is the first of it’s kind in the UK; a permanent, all electric, by the seaside and not for profit, sauna, for and by the sea swimming community. It’s finally here and we are dead proud of it. We would like to invite you to come and see what we’ve done with the funding and raise a glass of mulled wine to many warm winter month to come. If you would like to attend, please email events@folkestoneseasauna.com to reserve a glass of mulled wine.
Today, I’m super excited to announce that the building of our sauna is going really well. and we start testing it in the next couple of weeks. If all goes well, we could be opening within a month. If you're interested in a membership, you can register your details on our website and you will be the first to know when we open for membership. The wait is almost over: https://www.folkestoneseasauna.com
Brilliant news, thanks everyone!
HURRAY, we did it. Thanks to everyone who backed us and encouraged us along the way. Folkestone Rowing Club backed us with £2000. Thanks to Tim Prater and Gary Fuller’s District Council Ward Grant of £500 each. Our auction brought in £440 with Kirstyn Broom spending £350 alone. Thanks to Team Folkestone Sea Sauna who worked behind the scenes: Charlie Burton, Lizzie Watts and Lisa Hobbs. We are excited to work with Simon Davenport, builder, artist and fabricator, who will build the sauna for us. To stay up to date with the progress, sign up to our Facebook group: FOLKESTONE SEA SAUNA or our Instagram account. We will be in touch when the sauna is ready to launch. Enjoy the summer.
Whoop, 180 people have pledged since fundraising began!
How will the money be spent?Total £21,755
Costs Breakdown
This shows how money raised for the project will be spent. These costs have been confirmed by the project's Delivery Manager and verified.
Overfunding
This project is enabled for overfunding. If the project hits its funding goal before the end of the campaign period, any extra funds raised will be spent (in order of priority) on:
Total £21,755
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VolunteerFolkestone Sea Sauna is a constituted Community Group formed by a small voluntary group of people with the aim to improve the health and wellbeing of local residents and visitors to Folkestone by installing and operating a permenant community sauna to encourage year round swimming in the sea.
We have a Faceboook presence which developed alongside Folkestone Sea Swimmers and has grown from a few hundred before the lockdowns to over 1400, which is a testament to the growing popularity of sea swimming.
For the past few years we have been seeking to identify a location to install a sauna. Our group has met regularly and through many leads and dead ends have kept alive the hope that our dream for a sea sauna on the Folkestone coastline would become a reality.
Our perseverance paid off when the Folkestone Rowing Club offered to let us build a sauna in an used outbuilding.
Project Owner: Folkestone Sea Sauna The Project Owner takes legal responsibility for receiving and spending the funds raised and ensuring the project is delivered.
Contractor: Simon Davenport The team responsible for building or installing the project.
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