St George Bank has partnered with the St George Illawarra Dragons, St George Queensland Reds and GWS GIANTS and are set to award over $100,000 in grant funding to individuals and clubs involved in Rugby Union, Rugby League or AFL.

Lithgow Bears junior vice president Kaleb Richey said the much needed funds were a game changer for the small club.

"The funds will go towards equipment for the male and female sides including tagging equipment, tackle bags, balls and even uniforms," he said.

He said the money would also help in upgrading their home ground facilities.

"We hope to upgrade our shed to accommodate our female and male sides. It's hard to co-exist on a weekend for game day, we also have extension leads keeping our lights on and the paint looks older than the game of rugby league itself," he said.

Read more:

Mr Richey said with the Bears being a small country club, it could be a bit hard to grow and expand in a rural area.

"There's not many businesses that have the money to throw around for sponsorship and there's a fair few teams in the area and not everyone can be sponsored by the same people," he said.

But he hoped the funds from St George would give people in the club more ways to train and the opportunity to improve and grow skills they never thought they had.

"I can't put into words what this grant means to all of us [Lithgow Bears] and I can't express how thankful we are.

"We've already had ideas being thrown around for all sorts of improvements we could make and shows how we are invested in getting our club to grow," he said.

While you're with us, you can now receive updates straight to your inbox from the Lithgow Mercury. To make sure you're up to date with all the news, sign up here.