A charity that has helped thousands of children discover the outdoors over the last 20 years now wants to extend their work to youngsters with disabilities – but needs your help to make it happen in the next ten days.

The Helford River Children’s Sailing Trust hopes to raise between £10,000 and £25,000 for a ‘floating classroom’ to use at its new permanent base at Trevassack Lake, a flooded former quarry near Goonhilly Downs on the Lizard Peninsula.

However, the trust is up against 1,743 other projects in the same funding category of the Aviva Community Fund – and only 12 awards will be given out.

As a result, the charity is asking for the help of all families who have used their facilities over the last two decades, who might use them in the future and anyone who wants to help children get opportunities to sail and be outdoors.

To vote for the project visit community-fund.aviva.co.uk/voting/project/view/17-5489 and register to receive ten free votes.

The closing date for votes is Tuesday, November 21. with the winners announced in January.

The charity said: “Our ambition is to enable water-based sports and activities for all youngsters whatever their ability.

“The project that we are asking you to support is the provision of a fantastic floating classroom, designed with disability in mind to allow youngsters of all abilities to explore and enjoy water based activities from a stimulating and safe craft.”

The pontoon-based craft, which will have a full canopy covering and be open at the sides, would make the whole lake accessible to everyone, including those who are wheelchair-bound, and give access to the south bank – an area for forest crafts and wild camping that can only be reached by water.

“In addition the floating classroom offers an exciting and quite unique opportunity for youngsters with severe disabilities the chance to be out on the open water, to learn about the water life with an underwater camera, to fish from the well-stocked lake, to feel the winds from a safe platform. It will greatly expand the range of activities and the useable area of the lake for all children,” added the charity.

The floating classroom will be based on the ten-acre lake that forms part of its new 25-acre Centre for Excellence, which will cater for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities, as well as providing outdoor recreational facilities available to the whole local community.

The plan is to begin activities on the lake in spring next year, with a learning centre open by spring 2019.

The charity estimates that it will provide activities to around 1,600 children of all abilities each year, with around 13,000 individual outings in that time.