The Aquasports Cross Trust is a charity registered with the Charity Commission for England and Wales. Its mission is to advance the Christian faith through the primary provision of a youth adventure activities water sports holiday, which we simply call Aquasports.
We price Aquasports to cover our running costs for each holiday camp. These costs include, and are not limited to: insurances; the hire of the lake, paddock, tents, tables, chairs and other equipment; the purchase of food and other consumables (such as toilet paper, cleaning products, etc.); and fuel for boats, gas, electricity, water and sewage removal. A lot of our costs are fixed costs, such as the hire of the lake, and as such we split these costs across all who attend.
For larger purchases, such as (second hand) cookers, sailing boats, kayaks, boat engines, and this year new cabins, we look to our wonderful Aquasports supporters and their generous gifts. We have seen some amazing blessings over the years, and we are truly thankful. We are also grateful to their kind contributions to our bursary fund, which allows young people who would normally not be able to afford to attend come to Aquasports. If you have given in the past, in any way, thank you.
The price for Aquasports is based on the previous year’s running costs plus a little extra to cover inflation. We also factor in team fees; yes, our amazing team also pay to come and serve on camp. Our team are truly committed to this ministry, giving both their time and money.
During the Covid Pandemic inflation was very low and with Aquasports not having run for 2 years we set the price for Aquasports 2022 to be the same as 2019 price. With the cost of living going up across the country, we have seen fuel prices and products and services, like food and hire costs, to increase in prices from 15% to over 30%; much higher then general inflation. Hence, Aquasports has been hugely affected by these increases.
When we set the price for Aquasports 2023 in the preceding September, the trustees tried to minimise price increases to support parents in that period of high inflation and rising costs. They opted for a minimal increase, based on the previous year’s costs but did not factor in the continued high inflation seen over this past year – inflation has remained high until only this October. As a result, the 2023 camp again saw a large deficit and this further exhausted our reserves.
For Aquasports 2024 we have again taken the same approach in setting prices, considered a nominal 5% inflation factor, and this has given us a break-even price across 60 campers; this price represents the true cost of running Aquasports. Due to keeping the price low in 2022, we have had to now adjust our price to manage two years of cost increases. The trustees do closely monitor all spend and team are very frugal. Sadly, as many of the costs are fixed and set by others, there is little we can do to bring these costs down further. We are fully aware that the price will be a challenge to some, and we ask for your prayers, ideas and support on how we can help those with lower incomes attend.
We have reviewed Aquasports against other Christian youth adventure activities holidays, considered what they offer, and we still feel Aquasports remains reasonably priced and thus is viable to run. Sadly, we have seen a number of youth holidays close over the past couple of years and we praying for wisdom in managing the holiday as the economy rebalances over the next few years.
Please do get in touch if you would like to discuss any of this or if you can offer any ideas on how we raise funds on an ongoing basis to support young people in attending Aquasports. It is our desire that we can offer the holiday to anyone, regardless of background. We have a limited bursary fund which might be available to some, and we would love to find way to see that pot growing so we generously give to many more.
The Aquasports Trustees.