PROJECTS and organisations in Bromsgrove have received more than £429,000 in funding from the National Lottery over the last year.

12 grants were given out to the town throughout 2015, supporting arts, sports and heritage projects as well as community groups including Alvechurch Village Hall, which received £8,200 for refurbishments, Wythall CA Bowling Club, which received £2,900 to make the roof watertight, and Aston Fields Middle School, which received £9,800 for extra-curricular workshops on health and nutrition.

Ryan Molesworth, PE teacher at Aston Fields Middle School, said: “The Sports4All grant has allowed us to fund creative ideas to promote healthy lifestyles throughout the school. Each class is now taking part in a FitBit challenge where pupils are given a FitBit tracker to monitor their activity levels. Our main aim is to collectively make enough steps equivalent to the distance from our school to Rio de Janiero in preparation for the 2016 Olympic Games.

“We have also targeted less active pupils, and ran extra-curricular clubs such as wheelchair basketball, Zumba and yoga solely for them to compete physically in a more comfortable environment. It has had a huge effect on the children's views towards their physical activity and many staff members have purchased trackers as well to join the challenge.”

The National Lottery is currently launching its own award scheme, which is open to any organisation that has ever received National Lottery funding, and winners will receive a cash prize of £2,000.

The awards are being given out over sport, heritage, arts, environment, health, education and voluntary/charity categories to showcase the range of funding given out by the National Lottery. John Barrowman, presenter of last year’s National Lottery Awards show, said: “The National Lottery Awards offer an unmissable opportunity to give outstanding projects their time to shine. If you can think of a great Lottery-funded project, please nominate them for an award.”

“All these fantastic projects are funded by National Lottery players - every one of you should feel proud to raise an astounding £34million a week, which provides much needed support to such life-changing work.”

To nominate one of the Bromsgrove projects, tweet @LottoGoodCauses with suggestions, or call 0207 2933599 to find out more and to enter. All entries must be received by midnight on March 9, 2016.