Athletes chill after grants

Narrogin and Districts Little Athletics Centre received a $5000 Coles grant last month to help buy new equipment.

It was one of 316 centres across Australia to share more than $1 million in sports equipment grants from Coles.

Narrogin and Districts Little Athletics’ president Clare Levesque said the grant would make a big difference to the centre.

“We need new high-jump mats in order to comply with the new specifications that come out and being such a small centre with kids coming from different towns, it’s really hard to get everyone together to do fundraising,” Ms Levesque said.

“This grant has been able to help us achieve our goal quicker because high-jump mats are estimated to be more than $10,000.”

Funds for the grants are raised through the sale of specially marked chiller bags designed by nine-year-old Lachie Macdonald, of Victoria, and 12-year-old Charlie De Bruyn, of WA.

For every bag sold, 25 cents is directed to the Coles Little Athletics Community Fund to provide sport equipment grants.

Coles State general manager Pat Zanetti said Coles was delighted to provide grants to help children enjoy athletics in Narrogin.

“Thanks to our customers who have bought our range of chiller bags at Coles stores, we have provided more than $100,000 in sports equipment grants to Little Athletics centres across Western Australia and $1.1 million nationally in the past 12 months to help kids lead healthier, happier lives.”