Sam Farmer: support is 'really heartwarming'

Sam Farmer: support is 'really heartwarming'

An outdoors instructor who was the victim of an arson attack that destroyed all his gear said the support he has had from fellow climbers has been heartwarming.

Sam Farmer, who runs the Hope Project in Cornwall, said he has been able to accept his first booking from a youth group following the fire at St Agnes.

Liverpool-born Mr Farmer said he had been the victim of a protracted campaign of racial harassment since moving to the area 12 years ago, culminating in the fire that destroyed all his equipment and that of his partner an art teacher who helped him run activities for youth groups from underprivileged backgrounds.

But climbers and other wellwishers have raised more than £1,000 to help him with the fees he needs to get back into business.

Contributors to the UKClimbing forums leapt to his support after news of the attack in January this year.

He said: “They have set up this website and everyone has been putting cash in there to get my architect and planning payments off the ground to start the project off again.

“So far, they have collected £1,200 which is half the cost of the planners and architects.

“Now, people are saying they want to pay to put the whole building back – £200,000.

“People on UKC are saying they want to support the Hope Project in its entirety.

“Because of this, we’re now saying we’ll accept youth groups. We cancelled them all, but because we’ve got half the money we’re looking for, we’ve now accepted our first group this year from the Unity Boys’ Club in Liverpool. They’re coming the last week of July and the first week in August.

“We’ve promised them we can accommodate them on the land. They’re coming in tents; we’ll have it all cleared up by then, and we can facilitate what they want.

“And for the UKC forum donors, what we would like to do is, on 25 June, they are lighting a fire for the Queen’s diamond jubilee 20ft behind the Hope Project on the top of Beacon Hill, so we’d like them all to come down for a barbecue so we can say thanks to them all.”

The support has made the mixed-race instructor rethink his future.

“This has opened up my brain and my horizons to a wider world,” he said. “If people could find a way to give me £10 or £20, to help pay for the youth organisation, I could repay those people by letting them use the Hope Project.

“So rather than people supporting me as a charity, which I always felt a bit uncomfortable with, then if they put a few quid in, they could use the Hope Project: the land, and the ropes, the equipment and the surf boards.

“They could use it, like being a member of a club.

“I was struggling to find a way to pay everybody back. I thought, the best way is: you’ve put money in; you’re now a member of the Hope Project; you can camp here for free and use all our facilities for free.”

He and his partner Carla had always planned to move to Chamonix in the French Alps when they got older. The keen climber said he would like to extend the idea to include venues abroad, such as the Alpine resort.

“We could also go to Chamonix, find a person who has a similar location, and franchise the idea out – rename themselves as the Hope Project.

“My long-term plans are to turn what I’m doing here into a franchise. Like a timeshare, but a social timeshare.”

The Hope Project is based at St Agnes, a surfers’ paradise on the north Cornwall coast. But for the keen outdoorsman, the last few years have been more like hell, with racist abuse from some of the residents and neighbours.

The St Agnes website boasts of a traditional friendly Cornish atmosphere and a thriving community. But since setting up his project, Mr Farmer has felt anything but welcome.

After taking a Mountain Leader Training course in Llanberis when he was 19, he worked up to climbing at E4 grade, and started teaching climbing, canoeing, surfing, campcraft and navigation to youngsters who had never had access to the outdoors before.

This has included teenagers from Cornish towns as well as inner-cities.

On 8 January this year, the stables that doubled up as his partner’s art studio and the store for all his outdoor equipment went up in flames. The building and possessions, together worth £70,000, were destroyed in what police said were suspicious circumstances.

Climbing equipment, tents, surfing gear and all of his partner Carla Watkins’s artwork – 15 years’ worth – along with Mr Farmer’s piano, guitars and his writings were destroyed.

Mr Farmer is convinced the arson was racially motivated.

But, he said, the support from Britain’s climbers has been an inspiration. “Right now, it’s a story of white, middle-class males putting the project back together to help a mixed-race, working-class guy,” he said. “That’s really heartwarming,” he added.

Other media have taken an interest in Mr Farmer’s story. There are even rumours of a film.

He said: “Somebody said there’s a rumour that a guy called Danny Boyle is looking at the story to see if it’s ‘feelgood’ enough.

Donations to the Hope Project can be made via PayPal on the Hope Project website.