By William Moncrieff, Communications Apprentice
The Grampian and Highland Parasport Festivals took place over the weekend (Friday 27th and Saturday 28th, respectively), officially starting the SDS Parasport Festival 2024/2025 season.
Aberdeen Sports Village hosted Grampian’s Parasport festival, with Lochaber Leisure Centre was the venue for Highland’s.
Having just joined SDS in early June, it was Elizabeth Mills’ first time oragnising a festival in her area. She described the day as, “Absolutely amazing”, which left her a bit speechless.
She said, “I wasn’t expecting it to be so moving and touching and I think a lot of parents and volunteers and coaches have felt that as well. All the kids have just been absolutely incredible at what they do.”
The Highland Parasport festival was organised by Kathryn Talbot-Heigh, her second whilst in position as Regional Development Manager (RDM) at SDS.
“I think the Parasport Festivals are really good for being able to provide new sports to the participants who wouldn’t have had the confidence or opportunity to try before,” said Kathryn,
“We have a couple of children here today who are playing rugby for the first time, they are now asking to play it long term, this now means that we can try support the local rugby club to provide this in the area.”
Across the two Parasport festivals, participants got to try boccia, swimming, kayaking, rugby, shinty, bowls, cycling, table tennis, snow sports and athletics.
Not only do the Parasport Festivals provide participants with a fantastic introduction to sports but they can also provide an opportunity for personal growth and development. This is something that Jamie, a parent who brought their daughter, Bessie, to the Highland Parasport festival, noticed.
“Sport is a fundamental building block for children to have both inside and outside of school. Certainly, by introducing Bessie to a range of new sports and locations to do these sports has given her a lot of new confidence.” He continued to say: “She has definitely grown a lot as a person, meeting new people with their own needs and disabilities has helped. You can see with Bessie that the festival has also helped her overcome social anxieties.”
Elizabeth – also known as Wizzy – believes that the festivals are very important because, “they [parents, children] don’t know what’s out there. It’s really difficult to get that contact – to try and find other people to contact to get involved in that sport and if they don’t have my email where else are they going to go? So, this is a good introduction to the pathways which they can then follow.”
Reaching remote areas across the country is a crucial part of the work as a SDS RDM.
“Within the Highlands we won’t have the huge numbers but it is just as important that children in these rural areas have the opportunity to come and take part because they are still the same children in mainstream schools with disabilities that can’t always take part,” said Kathryn.
“It might be that we only have 10 or so children participating, but it is really important to have something that they haven’t had to travel long distances to access,” Kathryn explained.
Louise Gillespi, the National Development Manager at SDS, attended the event in the Highlands, and viewed it as a huge success.
“It’s great to be here in the Western Highlands. Usually we are around the Inverness area, so it’s nice to be in a new location.”
She continued to say, “It’s great to be here with some new sports like shinty to showcase, showing that these sports can be inclusive. It has been good to provide the participants with a range of sports, that way they can work out what works for them, hopefully they can then go and take this knowledge and find a regular sport throughout their local communities.”
If you would like to try a new sport in your area, find out more here or contact your RDM (via the same link).
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