Record attendance at this year’s inclusive DIScoverABILITY Day
7th June 2023
Author EditorPosted on Categories Networking & Events
Hundreds of children turn out for a day of sport at Hove County Cricket Ground.
Sussex Cricket held its mass disability inclusion event – DIScoverABILITY Day – last month.
The 1st Central County Ground was full, despite wet conditions, with this year’s attendance surpassing that of the previous 12 events by a considerable number. More than 600 participants from 32 different organisations, including schools, colleges, day centres and community organisations, enjoyed an action-packed, fun-filled day at Hove.
A carousel of activity stations was created and run by an enthusiastic team of 15 Sussex Cricket coaches and 60 business and community volunteers. The majority of volunteers came from a variety of Sussex businesses, including 1st Central, Webtrends Optimize, Telefonica, Galloways Accounting, Active Sussex and Yes Promo Products.
The event was also supported by 85 sports leaders from Brighton Girls’ School, Durrington High School, Lancing College Prep School, Copthorne Prep School, Dorothy Stringer School and Blatchington Mill School. The sports leaders escorted visiting groups around the different zones providing cricket-based activities like Table Cricket, the Cricket Factory and Sid the Shark’s Big Hit Challenge. Attendees also got to try out other adapted sports including Football (Albion in the Community), Golf (Jolf) and Wheelchair Basketball.
Sid the Shark made an appearance providing numerous photo opportunities and the Sussex Cricket Foundation Champion, Jamie Atkins, brought Tymal Mills, Ollie Robinson and Tom Haines to join in the fun.
Despite the cloudy and wet conditions, the ground was full of smiling faces for the entire day generating some great feedback from visitors and volunteers.
Emma Catt, a teacher from Saxon Mount School (St Leonards), said: “Thank you for organising another great day of games at DIScoverABILITY Day. Feedback from the staff when we got back was that all the pupils from Saxon Mount had a great time and learned new skills through lots of fun activities. They also enjoyed interacting with the coaches and other young people and every pupil from our school group took part in the events as they were so inclusive.”
An employee volunteer from Telefonica said: “It’s the best day of the year for me. I’ve done it for the last three years. Absolutely love spending time with the children. It’s a real privilege to be with them.”
Sussex Community Cricket Director, Gary Wallis-Tayler said: “DIScoverABILITY Day continues to go from strength to strength. To see so many people turn up in questionable weather conditions shows the popularity of the event. Huge thanks to the coaches and volunteers running the activity stations, who did not have a single lull from start to finish. Thanks also to school sports leaders who once again did a wonderful job hosting our visitors.”
The highlights reel from this year’s event can be seen here – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQXEgWfBOdY .
The next Disability Cricket event at The 1st Central County Ground is the Sussex County Squad’s D40 Quest league fixture against Middlesex on Sunday, June 18. Register here for free tickets.