After the gruelling examination season in Basingstoke schools, which will climax in June of this year, as it does every year, you will probably see why there is the need to give the youth of this lovely town a bit of a mental release from the rigours of study.
And as you all know by now, I embrace sport… sport, sport and sport all the time.
The only way I see this release manifest is through sport.
My club, Rotary Sport International, is spearheading a sport day in Basingstoke. We will call it a Rotary Festival of Sports in Basingstoke.
The idea is to bring everyone together in one venue, to play sport, to express their interests, to have a carousel of trying out in the various sports on show, and mingle, network and raise awareness of the beauty, the magic of Rotary.
Rotary Sport will be at the forefront of this event, but this is also an open invitation to the other Rotary Clubs in the area (Rotary Club of Basingstoke, which I presided over for more than a year; Rotary Club of Basingstoke Loddon, Rotary Club of Basingstoke Deane, Rotary Club of Odiham/Hook, Winchester, Alton, etc.) to make a Rotary Family Sports event of it.
This great event will be on Saturday, 12th July and will be on the grounds of Cranbourne School, Wessex Close, Basingstoke.
I always get excited at these things. Last year, just over a year to the date of the next one, we had something similar.
Rotary Club of Basingstoke, which I was President of at the time, had a Basingstoke Football Festival at the Winklebury Football Complex on 6th July.
It was rained out but was a success given the circumstances.
And I was determined that we would create a sporting culture in this town… so when we started the Rotary Sport project, we thought to expand it to be a wholesome sports event, to have an indoor and outdoor option, and to engage with a wider spectrum of our community.
On 12th July in Basingstoke, we want everyone to be talking sport.
And there will be something in there for everyone.
In the indoor hall of Cranbourne, we will have five-a-side football, we will have basketball and volleyball, we will have table tennis and we will have lawn bowls.
In the fields, weather permitting, we will have outdoor football, as well as food and drinks, especially the possibility of a really well-coordinated barbecue.
Rotary Sport is committed to building a sport culture in Basingstoke, determined to ensure that our youth, and older ones even, are physically and mentally protected by action and activity in sport.
Everyone is welcome - young, the not-so-young, men, women; mothers and fathers as well as children.
It is intended to be a real festival and I am using this medium to call people to come and be a part of what it promises to be.
You can contact president@rotarysport.org or together@rotarysport.org if you want to volunteer or if you have a stall to put up to showcase to the guests.
Sport is a unifying tool and it is really good to use sport to ease tension, to enable physical and mental wellbeing, and this is exactly what Rotary Sport intends to do, not just with this one event, but continually over time.
It is a huge benefit to have such a project birthed in Basingstoke, and I am looking forward to seeing everyone.
Dr ‘Tunde Adelakun
President, Rotary Sport
Share