Sports Coaching students inspired local school pupils recently with an innovative ‘Building Bridges’ sports event designed to breakdown stereotypes and encourage participation.
The Second year HND group of 14 students - led by Rebecca Miller (19) from Doune and Andy Boyle (19) from Linlithgow, organised the event - called ‘Building Bridges’ and was part of their Events Management section - at the Forth Valley College Falkirk Campus on Thursday 30 March, which was attended by pupils from the Carrongrange School and Larbert High School.
The group – Hollie Cassidy, Andrew Boyle, Mark Donnelly, Michael Gould, Kieran Kennedy, Ryan Lawson, Thomas McBride, Rebecca Millar, Stuart Millar, Linzi Rankin, Mikhailla Small, Anthony Trodden, Lewis Williamson and Chloe Wotherspoon - enlisted the help of Supporters Direct Scotland and The Colours of Our Scarves to encourage equality and respect of others and they organised demonstrations of Boccia (sitting bowls), Blind Football and Wheelchair basketball.
Guests on the day included Falkirk Council Provost, FVC’s Associate Principal Andrew Lawson and former FVC student and Paralympic athlete and swimmer Hope Gordon.
Rebecca, said:
“Our aim was to breakdown barriers and stereotypes that sometimes accompany sport and disability and get more young people involved in sport. I definitely enjoyed it and it was great to be involved in a live project which would be similar to what it will be like in the workplace.”
Andy, said:
“We were hoping to tackle inequality, encourage participation and coaching pathways and we hope we have managed to do this. I have really enjoyed being involved. It has been a great experience and really rewarding seeing it all come together. We can’t thank everyone who has helped out and come along to take part and support us enough.”
FVC Lecturer Grant Ralston, said:
“I am extremely proud of all the hard work that each member of the team worked to deliver a very well organised event. A special thank you goes out to Mark Reid from Supporters Direct Scotland for helping with the sports inclusion event.”
Mark Reid, Project Manager from The Colours of Our Scarves, said:
“Supporters Direct Scotland and the Colours of our Scarves project are delighted to once again be working in partnership with Forth Valley College to help facilitate an event for local participants, aimed at tackling hate behaviour and on this occasion specifically Dis-Ability prejudice.
“The students worked incredibly hard over the last three months to put all this together and deserve great praise and based on feedback form participants and observers today, the students efforts have not gone unnoticed or unappreciated.”
