Dancefloor Challenge raises thousands

Thursday 29 August 2019

The team behind the annual Dancefloor Challenge have awarded thousands of pounds to two local not-for-profit organisations following another successful year of fundraising.

The 2019 event, which took place earlier this year, raised a total of £12,500 which is being split between the Sarah Groves Foundation and the Guernsey Amateur Dancesport Association.

"We set up the Dancefloor Challenge originally so dancers have something to work towards over here," said organiser Jamie Le Tissier. "It's not like in England where you can go to competitions every week, it's expensive to get off this island. But also, the running costs of GADA are very high so half the money we raise always goes to help with that.

"When we have spare money in GADA we use it to supplement some of our dancers who want to do competitions abroad. We've got a few this year and we agreed that we could pay £50 per person towards travel."

Event organisers choose a local charity each year to benefit from the rest of the money raised. This year, Vic and Kate Groves were happy to receive the money towards future projects with the Sarah Groves Foundation.

Pictured: Contestants in this year's Dancefloor Challenge.

"It's just been an added bonus in our lives," said Mrs Groves. "It's all the effort that they go to. They worked tirelessly and so hard, and they drum up the enthusiasm in everyone that takes part. I was blown away by the end result!"

The foundation has no solid plans in place for the money yet, but is working on a few different ideas.

"We've got two or three projects in discussion," added Mr Groves. "We've slightly changed tack because we've been dishing money out in a number of different directions with reasonably small sums, but they're really here today gone tomorrow."

The foundation is looking to undertake more large projects, like its recent refurbishment of the Children's Library at the Guille-Alles Library.

"We have another potential opportunity along very similar lines [to the library project] and we have another one, if it comes to anything, possibly at Saumarez Park. That's to do with a children's education centre in conjunction with the schools to teach people about horticulture.

Pictured: Kate and Vic Groves.

"We put £50,000 into the library and that's led to more positive feedback than everything else we've done put together, so in a way we are holding off and keeping our spend down to a minimum at the moment in order to be able to fund a couple of bigger projects when they come along."

Recent proceedings in the trial of the man accused of murdering Mr and Mrs Groves' daughter in Kashmir have caused some delays to the foundation's work over the past year.

"We've been seriously sidetracked with the trial, so it hasn't helped our psyche in terms of putting lots of time, effort and energy into the Foundation," explained Mr Groves. "We've slightly pulled back from what was a frenetic year last year with the cycle ride to Amsterdam. I think this year is almost a static, neutral year but everything that comes in is more or less earmarked for things in the future and anything else that crops up in the meantime."

Pictured top: Vic Groves, Jamie Le Tissier, Kate Groves, Bonnie Lehr and Lesley Le Tissier.