Playing for a Cause – Upper Great Souther Hockey Association
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Playing sport is more than just the W on the scoreboard. Sometimes it’s about community rallying around each other for the greater good, to support something bigger than just the match at hand. And that’s the beauty of sport, it has a way of connecting and motivating people to strive for greater things, new beginnings, and driving change.
One way many clubs leverage this power for a good cause is by holding a round entirely dedicated to it, encouraging support and spreading awareness about any given cause or topic.
One club that has been particularly successful regarding this is Upper Great Southern Hockey Association.
Earlier this year, the club devoted their ‘I know what I’d Rather Be Doing’ round to enforce the message of the dangers of drink driving. Involving both their Netball and Hockey Associations, the club hosted a round that left a lasting impact on their local community.
“We where fortunate enough to get a $4200 grant from the Road safety commission.
The idea of the round was to get local first responders to have their uniform on with their sporting equipment as well. We had Fire brigade, ambulance, police and a doctor involved in the photo shoot.
Over the round we had the PARTY program from Perth royal hospital do a talk to parents and teenagers on Thursday evening. We had 25 participants.”
The incredible amount of creativity and the sheer volume of activities throughout this round was nothing short of excellence. The club shared some of the key elements that drove the event and made it so successful:
“We had the RAC helicopter virtual reality display for all the junior players to have a look at. One comment was ‘can we do it again that was awesome’.
We also ran a colouring competition for primary school children with 30 entries. We gave out 6 prizes to the best entries.
We also had two quizzes going over the round. We had an under 18 and an over 18 quiz. We had a combine 50 entries for this quiz. There where prizes for anyone ho got a perfect score.
We had posters, wallet cards, an alcohol awareness display and flyers with ways to combat alcohol consumption.
We ran a skipper’s program and have decided to keep it going for the rest of the season.
This was a great success and we will be keeping the posters up for the rest of the season. We also had Triple M radio involved in the promotion of the event.
To cap of a great decision to run the event was we won the Clubs WA Road Safety award for 2022. This was great achievement for our committee and players who all got involved with the event.”
Now THAT is how you successfully hold a round for a cause! Well done Upper Great Souther Hockey Association on an outstanding accomplishment in your community, and for successfully demonstrating that sport is an excellent vehicle to engage and connect people to discuss and spread awareness of issues in society.
Why not check out what other awesome things this club is doing? See their website here!
