Swords Basketball Special Olympics Club win November Gala Gifts for Clubs Cash Prize
We are delighted to announce that Swords Basketball Special Olympics Club are November's winner of the Gala Gifts for Clubs competition and have won €500 in cash.
Swords Basketball Special Olympics Club is the proud winner of November 2023’s Gala Retail’s Gifts for Clubs Cash prize!
For the past ten years, Swords Basketball Special Olympics Club has been a beacon of inclusivity and community in the Swords area. The club uses basketball to empower individuals - holding weekly sessions for 30 athletes every Tuesday evening. The focus of the club is not only on the sport but also on fostering friendship and togetherness.
The club has demonstrated resilience and ingenuity when challenges have arisen. The Covid-19 pandemic proved this, as the club continued to meet every Tuesday evening on a virtual basis, using Facebook Live and Zoom to train and workout together. When it was safe, the club provided all athletes with basketballs so they could practice at home until in-person activities reopened.
The pandemic posed another challenge as volunteers left and the club came close to shutting down. The club tackled this by creating a video featuring athletes and coaches, highlighting the positive impact of our club. This attracted enough volunteers to continue basketball activities. Those same volunteers are still involved with the club today – the video can be viewed at facebook.com/100063481684203/videos/4480929151993498/
The club's dedication to inclusivity is notable as it provides opportunities for those who may no longer play actively. The Swords Basketball Special Olympics Club has successfully trained athletes to become basketball table officials, enabling them to stay connected with the sport and contribute in new capacities. This initiative exemplifies the club's commitment to keeping individuals engaged and involved, regardless of their playing abilities.
Head Coach Chloe Farrell, who has recently been shortlisted in the Sports and Recreation category of the Volunteer Ireland Awards 2023, said: “Swords Basketball Special Olympics Club hopes to demonstrate sports's transformative power in building inclusive communities within our town. The club values friendship, acceptance, and celebration; we organise bowling parties, social nights, and end-of-season parties and have been very lucky to travel to events with Special Olympics Ireland such as movie premieres and our competitions which we love playing in.
“We have recently changed our club logo so we would love to put the prize money towards buying new training t-shirts so we all match during our sessions with our new logo. Our league is starting up again so we are looking forward to starting our matches against other teams in Eastern Region in Division 2 and 3.
"We are delighted to win Gala's November Club of the Month. We've recently celebrated 10 years of our great club - we had Mayor of Fingal Adrian Henchy join us to celebrate and present our athletes and volunteers with some awards for our 10th birthday so this is a great way for us to end a brilliant year. Our club is constantly growing from more athletes joining our club to our coaches upskilling on courses to make sure the experience is bigger and better every year for our teams. We're big fans of parties in our club so normally we would spend the prize on a party but we do need new t-shirts for all our members and what better way to mark this celebration then using it towards that cost. Thank you Gala for supporting all the Special Olympics clubs and for picking us this month to be Club of the Month!"
A huge thank you to all the clubs who entered the Gala Gifts for Club competition. If you didn’t win this time around your entry will go forward to next month’s draw so there’s no need to enter again.
You can view photos of Swords Special Olympics Club here.
