AELTC Announces Measures To Support Coronavirus Recovery
The AELTC has announced a series of contributions to support the local, national and international recovery from the coronavirus pandemic following the cancellation of Wimbledon.
The club says it will combine the use of the organisation’s facilities, resources and £1.2m of charitable giving to aid the response to the pandemic as well as the recovery efforts across society.
The funds will go to four different areas set out by the AELTC. These include, being ‘fair’ to those who ‘make Wimbledon happen’, including donations to the international Players’ Relief Programme set up by tennis’s governing bodies; a contribution to St John’s Ambulance; refunds for those who have bought tickets, and commitments to partners and suppliers.
There is also a £1.2m fund by the Wimbledon Foundation, which will provide for local charities, while the AELTC will also donate to the emergency services and London hospitals as well as the NHS Charities Together COVID-19 Urgent Appeal.
The fourth area, meanwhile, will see Wimbledon support its fans with the launch of a weekly content series of classic matches streamed on YouTube, as well as planning ‘celebratory programming and bespoke content’, which is being developed in collaboration with the club’s broadcast partners and will be launched in June.
“As we navigate a year without a Championships, our highest priority continues to be the health and wellbeing of all those who make Wimbledon happen and those for whom this pandemic has caused suffering and loss,” said Ian Hewitt, Chairman, AELTC. “We strongly believe that Wimbledon has the responsibility and the capacity to act as a force for good, using our resources to help those in need, particularly in a crisis such as this.
“We have worked hard to develop a wide-ranging series of measures to provide the help that we can to those in our local and regional communities who are most affected as we begin the period of recovery, which we recognise is going to continue to cause hardship for many for some time. We continue to be humbled by the passion shown for Wimbledon by fans all around the world since our cancellation announcement, and we look forward to a time when we will be able to come together again.”
Wimbledon, meanwhile, has confirmed that some of its Official Partners have been active in helping the community. The AELTC says that, among other activations, American Express has partnered with Deliveroo to donate 50,000 meals to hospitals and healthcare facilities; IBM provided free access to its AI and Cloud services to aid in science and research efforts, and Diageo has donated alcohol to enable manufacturers to create vast quantities of hand sanitiser for frontline health workers.
