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Meet Evie Hammond who with help from the Postal Family Fund has been able to access a sport she loves. We spoke to Evie’s dad and postie Darren Hammond about her achievements.
Why did you apply for the Rising Stars bursary?
Evie’s Ice skating journey began in 2016 where she was taken to the Grimsby Ice Rink, where she started her lessons, Skate UK is the approved Learn to Skate course developed by British Ice Skating (‘BIS’ – www.iceskating.org.uk/learn-to-skate) on as the fundamental training scheme for anyone wanting to Learn to Skate. The Skate UK program teaches movement and basic ice skating skills for skaters of all ages in 8 clear stages. After completing these 8 stages she continued on the Skate UK STAR programme of basic skills relevant to the Free Skating discipline; these are the fundamentals of this discipline, bronze, silver and gold. Once a skater has completed this programme, they have the basic knowledge of Free Skating and is able to progress up to the British Ice Skating National Test Structure. This programme is tested under a progressive and continuous testing structure. She quickly rose though these initial levels competing in local competitions and galas, sadly Covid struck so was off the ice.
However she has now returned back to ice skating practicing 4-5 days a week with a professional instructor Vicky Mayne (a previous skater performing in Disney on Ice). Evie has also become part of the Hull Northern Starlets Synchro skating team
This team was formed just before lockdown March 2020 (currently 16 skaters) and trained over zoom and when we could finally meet up in car parks to train off ice, we then managed to get ice once a week in Grimsby. This is a small rink so training was hard, and have achieved a fantastic results for the team. We went to London in November 2022 representing Hull, we achieved Silver, our next competition was in Dumfries Scotland in December 2022 and we achieved Gold and our next competition was in Nottingham in January 2023 this was an international competition and we achieved Silver.
What impact has the Rising Stars bursary had?
We are truly grateful for the support from the Postal Family Fund Rising Stars bursary, this has helped towards her new skates, competition dress and lessons and many things that go along with ice skating, we will be keeping you posted of all her achievements.
What would you like to say to other postal workers thinking about apply for a bursary?
This is a good opportunity for young stars to be able to access sports that they may not be able to afford.
