After all is said and run

Written by Kita Berman van Heerden, Challenge:ELBA Project Manager

Earlier this month ELBA organised a Just Turn Up Day with Young Hackney in celebration of the 10-year anniversary of the Olympics and Paralympics in London. Young Hackney has run its ‘Personal Bests’ project since 2012, with the aim of improving young people’s health and wellbeing, along with showing them that sport is something that everyone can enjoy. It is fully inclusive as the children compete against themselves to achieve their own personal bests.

The day was a culmination of months of activities that over 2,000 children in schools across Hackney have been participating in. Young Hackney was keen to get some voluntary support to lead the children through a series of sports events and stations including long jump, 60-metre sprints and agility tests. ELBA organised for 15 volunteers from various corporate supporters to sign up as individuals and give back to the community as part of this activity.

The day itself began with a briefing from the Young Hackney staff, who outlined the schedule for the day, before snapping some photos of everyone who had come out to support the smooth running of the day. These included volunteers from HSBC, Lloyd’s of London, Thomson Reuters, Societe Generale and Royal London. Each volunteer was then allocated to a specific school to support the teachers and students across the whole day. The festivities kicked off in full force with students enthusiastically getting involved in each sports event, with ongoing support from the dedicated volunteers who helped to encourage the students and keep their energy high throughout. There was even the opportunity for the volunteers themselves to take part in a relay race, which brought out the competitive streak in several of them!

Overall, the day was a great success and couldn’t have been made possible without the dedicated support of the volunteers. In total, 250 children from 21 schools were able to reach their personal bests and be recognised for these incredible achievements. One volunteer told us that “It was great to get out of the office and do something physical and completely different to our normal day. The team were also incredibly helpful and made the day really easy, we all had such a great time!”.

ELBA aims to put on regular Just Turn Up Days and if you would like to take part in the next one, please do get in touch at challenge@ellba-1.org.uk.

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