A Beautiful Day Spent With Beautiful People

On a wet and windy Sunday 8 GoodGymers joined all sorts of other volunteers at The Greenbank Sports Academy, to help run a day of sports for blind and partially sighted people in the Liverpool and surrounding areas. There was an array of sports all day, from football, to goal ball, boccia, curling, baseball and tennis.

Attendees ages ranged from the 20's to the 90's. We basically mucked in and did whatever was required, from joining in with the sports, acting as ball fetchers, to helping people getting around, and sometimes just having a friendly chat.

It cannot be underestimated the power of what we did, and the power of just having a chat. This is a section of society, which has struggled more than most during the pandemic. Not only do some of the participants have sight loss issues but other health issues as well, so it was heartwarming to see everyone giving every sport a go.

As well as the indoor sports we offered tandem cycle rides, which proved really popular. I was privileged to be able to take out C, who at 93 years old wanted to do a tandem cycle ride as it was on her bucket list. So, off we went. The smiles on everyone's faces after the rides and sports was something to behold. It was lovely to see Heetu, Lee, Christina, Pauline, Jess, Ruth and Roz throwing themselves into the event, in cases literally, in order to make it such a success.