Back in October The Life Adventure launched a crowdfunding campaign to raise funds for a new community project we launched called Selsey Sea Bathing Society. We’re hugely excited to tell you that we successfully raised our target of £1300 thanks to the West Sussex Community Fund and supporters both locally as well as far and wide. The website is now up and our first event is set for Saturday 18th May. It’s free to attend and if you don’t fancy a swim, you can just enjoy the sea air, gaze at the incredible scenery, watch others enjoying their swim, revel in good company and enjoy a hot cup of tea!
The idea behind SSBS
Selsey Sea Bathing Society is a celebration of the sea, of community and of a beautiful area once cut off from the mainland and known as Seal Island. Our hope is that this becomes a community where like-minded women (men can also attend by member invitation) who love the sea, come together primarily to bathe in the cool waters of East and West Beach (and perhaps even further beyond). And to give those perhaps a little less able – those who perhaps once enjoyed a swim in the sea, but are now too nervous. We give the support and security to get back into the waters – whether a paddle, a quick dip using the special sea wheelchair we plan to purchase for the Society, or a swim for old times sake. Bathing aside, in the colder months, it will also be a community which gathers to share what’s important to us, to listen to great talks we plan to host once a month, and also to help the local community by coming up with fun ways to raise money for good causes that are close to all our hearts.
In essence, Selsey Sea Bathing Society is an excuse to celebrate this magnificent coastline as well as enjoying each other’s company and supporting each other. We are open to women who would love to sea bathe but feel afraid or lack the confidence to swim alone, to those who need help getting in and out of the water and to those who just like the sound of this community and want to join in with the talks and events and just watch by the side-lines those of us who brave the chilly waters when they would rather not!
At present we are free to join and we aim to keep it that way for as long as possible. Events where talks are from speakers who charge a fee will be chargeable, but we’ll aim to keep this at a cost of no more than £10pp and day trips to destinations outside Selsey which require paid-for transportation will also be chargeable, but again, we will aim to keep these as low-cost as possible. We are a not-for-profit organisation that seeks to benefit the community, not our pockets.
Read more about our plans and story here or sign up to join us at our first event here.