Company jumps at chance to join forces

Crossbar Coaching Education in Sport will be working closely with Jump In Shrewsbury to give youngsters from around Shropshire the chance to have fun and be active.

They plan to join forces to promote a host of new initiatives, with Gavin Cowan, the managing director of Crossbar, excited to be linking up with Jump In, which is based at Arlington Way, Shrewsbury.

“Jump In is a phenomenal facility,” he said. “What we do is all about physical literacy, health and wellbeing, and if you can combine that with fun then the definition is Jump In.

“We’re really fortunate to be able to form a partnership and address health and social issues with the children - but it’s also about them having lots of fun, so this is a great link for us and we're really excited.”

Duncan Kemp, the general manager of Jump In Shrewsbury, added: “I’ve had some great conversations with Gavin about the many areas that Crossbar are involved in the local community and we really want to be part of that.

“Our main aim is to get young people active and to make sure they’ve got a space where they can have a lot of fun. That ties in very well with what Crossbar are all about, so it’s a perfect partnership for us.”

Crossbar, which is celebrating its tenth anniversary year, deliver sport across the curriculum in many Shropshire primary schools and are renowned for running popular school holiday clubs.

Gavin added: “We’ll be inviting some of the schools we work with to Jump In to take part in our Crossbar Primary Sports Festivals. They are competitions we hold throughout the year for children perhaps not as active as others.

"They will have the chance to come along and do some alternative sports like boccia, new age kurling, archery and trampoline dodgeball, which will be very popular.”

Duncan stressed he’s equally excited about the partnership with Crossbar as Jump In prepare to celebrate its first birthday in Shrewsbury on October 1.

“It's been a really successful first year,” he said.