The Wilson Memorial Trust and the Covid-19 Crisis – can we help?

Many people are not aware of the existence of The Wilson Memorial Trust. It is a Steyning based Charitable Trust set up in 2001, for the health and well-being of residents of Steyning and the surrounding area, thanks to the generosity of Ted and Margaret Wilson.

The trustees meet regularly and consider grant applications from local organisations. Successful proposals involve the promotion of mental or physical health and wellbeing within the local community (this includes Steyning, Bramber, Upper Beeding, Ashurst, Washington and Ashington).

We would like to invite applications for grants. It is clear that we will be living with Covid-19 for several months at least, so we encourage you to get in touch if your organisation has an idea for a project or facility which could help to support our community through this challenging time.

So far we have provided funds to The Hub in Upper Beeding to aid their Covid-19 food distribution service.

The first step is to send an email to wilsonmemorialtrust@gmail.com with an outline of your suggestion or project idea. We will then contact you to talk it through and if it is a viable project that we feel we could support then we will request a more formal application.

In the past grants have been made to many local organisations for a wide variety of projects.

Recent examples include funding towards the 3G pitch at Steyning Town Football Club, the clubhouse at the Tennis Club, nets for the Cricket Club, the basketball area in the Memorial Playing Field, the Outdoor Gym on Cuthman Field, and the new educational barn under construction for the Lorica Trust in Washington.

The Trust has also given grants to Steyning Medical Centre and St Barnabas House Hospice for equipment, West Sussex Mind for counselling support, Steyning First Responders and Steyning Downland Scheme for defibrillators.

Bring your ideas to us… we are keen to help.

NB It is important to stress that grants cannot be made to individuals, they need to go to organisations that serve the local community.