Barooga Public School has been awarded a $2500 Strawberry Fields grant to upgrade its basketball facilities for school and public use.
The existing courts will be tidied and have the line markings repainted to make them better suited for everyone.
The courts will also have new nets and specially designed “breakaway” rings that won’t break if someone slam dunks on them.
Barooga parents and citizens’ group president Carly Marriott said they found a basketball court upgrade would be the most beneficial to everyone.
“We saw the grant was available and it was for community funds ... we’d been looking at our school and how best we could upgrade certain facilities and what priority areas for us, and the basketball court was a big one,” she said.
Ms Marriott said the courts were “looking a bit tired” and were well-positioned to turn a school asset into a community one.
“We’d heard around town that there was a lot of interest in using a basketball court facilities, so we thought the two complemented themselves and the Strawberry Fields grant covered that,” she said.
“This means that after hours and after school, people can come down and play basketball. So it’s a good way of providing an active outlet for the town, whether it’s teenagers, parents, it doesn’t matter.”
The P and C group had applied for the grant program in June and was notified its grant application was successful on Thursday, August 11.
The Strawberry Fields Community Grants program uses some of the ticket funds from the Strawberry Fields Festival in Tocumwal for community-centred projects, with about $35,000 donated per festival.
Strawberry Fields director Tara Medina said they want the festival to have a positive and enduring benefit, regardless of whether locals are able to attend or are interested in it.
"These micro grants enable small community organisations to deliver projects which often fall between the cracks of major state and federal funding programs and we're proud to continue to offer it and support locals in the Berrigan shire," she said.
Since the grant program’s inception in 2015, more than $100,000 has been donated to various community organisations.