Staff at Deen City Farm were celebrating this week after receiving a vitally-needed £10,000 grant from the Gannett Foundation - the charitable arm of the Wimbledon Guardian’s publishers.
The money will go towards a new horse for the riding school at the Colliers Wood farm and repair work to parts of the site’s fencing that has not been replaced in more than 20 years.
According to the farm’s operations manager, Ben Cheetham, the grant was an early Christmas present following a torrid Autumn when visitor numbers plummeted due to the e-coli outbreak at Godstone Farm in Surrey - even though Deen City Farm was unaffected.
He said: “It really has been a miserable time but this is a tremendous boost and will allow us to continue providing something special for youngsters from all parts of the community.
“This grant makes a huge difference and allows us to operate in a sustainable way in future years. A number of our horses are coming to an age where they need to be put out to retirement.”
The search is now on to find the right horse for the farm - it will have to be of the right age and character before being kept in isolation while settling in. Staff hope to celebrate their new arrival by February.
Gannett, the US parent company of the Wimbledon Guardian offers the grants to support community projects within the newspapers’ circulation.
They are generally between £1,000 and £5,000, but exceptions are made for special projects and organisations like Deen City Farm.
In 2007, Haslemere primary school in Mitcham received £30,000 towards a new state-of-the-art sports pitch.
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