Time to help the man known for helping others

27/01/2021

Primary School pupil and restaurant owner both want to help Spit ‘n’ Sawdust gym survive

A ten-year-old Banbury boy and prominent local restaurant owner have come together to raise money for a local gym owner – a man who is well known for devoting his time to help others.   Dave Earle MBE’s Spit ‘n’ Sawdust gym needs money to repair a leak in the roof and to fix the showers and heating.

Shenington Primary School pupil Adidja Carpenter is a gym member and is taking on a challenge to raise funds for the repairs.   He describes the gym as “like his family”.  

Adidja is planning to run 50 laps of People’s Park over the next five weeks ahead of his 11th birthday.

James Doung, the owner of Paw Paw Chinese restaurant, is helping promote Adidja’s challenge and has volunteered to help raise money for Spit ‘n’ Sawdust by setting up a JustGiving page.   He said: “Dave offers facilities for children from broken families, with mental health issues.   They come to his gym and have a session – he doesn’t charge them.   Sometimes he’ll sit down with these individuals and talk to them – try to help them through the difficulties they have.”

Spit ‘n’ Sawdust has been severely hit by the pandemic, having to remain closed and with people cancelling their memberships.   Now the gym doesn’t have the funds to pay for repairs to a leak in the roof and to fix the showers and heating.

Adidja, who lives in Easington is planning on running 10 laps of People’s Park every week over the next five weeks.      The challenge stems from an idea that came up when speaking to Dave during the first lockdown.  

Each day Adidja ran the number of laps of his Close to match the number of days in the month.   He said: “I’ve been training where I live.   I used to train during the weeks when it was half term.   When I’m at school I do it at the weekend.”

Dave Earle recently received an MBE for his charitable work.   He runs the Tribus Group which he set up in 2017 to help people suffering from mental health problems. Dave is also a member of Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust where he advises on mental health issues.   He has run the Spit ‘n’ Sawdust gym and amateur boxing club in North Bar since 2007.

A target of £10,000 has been set to help pay for the repairs at the Spit ‘n’ Sawdust gym.

Adidja is determined to work hard to help raise the money because he really enjoys being a part of the gym.   He said: “It’s just like a family.   [Dave]’s like a dad to me.   He’s the best coach ever.”

James added: “Throughout Dave’s career he has devoted a large amount of his time to helping the community he’s in – Banbury – and most of the time for free.   I think this is a great opportunity for us to reach out and say we care, we love you and we’re going to help you”.

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Published: by Banbury FM Newsteam

Reader's opinions
  1. james   On   27/01/2021 at 9:24 am

    thank you andy for your help in getting the message across banbury, we are hopeful we can help spit ‘n’ sawdust at this desperate time of need.

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