Aria Pascal MOCBP Award

On Monday 11th April 2022 John Kelly, Chairperson of Cunninghame Housing Association presented a cheque for £1,000 to Aria Pascual, a young karate athlete from Saltcoats. 

Aria’s love for the sport has been from a very young age, starting out by attending the Tiger Cubs Karate. Over the years she has shown commitment and hard work, currently training 10-12 hours a week, alongside working part time and studying full time at the University of Stirling. Most recently, she has been selected to represent Scotland in the Senior National Team and will be competing in the Senior European Championships in Turkey.

Aria, a third dan black belt, has represented Scotland previously at junior and under 21 level, but this is her first section at senior level.  The funding provided by Cunninghame Housing Association will assist Aria with the financial costs that will be incurred travelling to Turkey, such as travel, food and accommodation. Given Aria is self-funded, there is always a financial challenge to maintain and compete in such a sport therefore she relies on support from her family and local businesses. Not only will the funding assist financially, but it will also ensure that Aria continues to do what she loves and help realise her dreams and support all of the hard work she has done to get to where she is today. 

The funding for Aria came from the Associations “Making Our Communities a Better Place Fund” which operates throughout the year (1^st April 2021 to 31^st March 2022) until the allocated funding is exhausted.