Ayrshire Sportsability’s Festival of Sport returns at Ayrshire College
Around 400 pupils and adults arrived at Ayrshire College’s Kilmarnock Campus for a week-long Festival of Sport organised by Ayrshire Sportsability.
Ayrshire Sportsability co-hosts the annual Festival of Sport with their Development Partners – East, North and South Ayrshire Councils and Ayrshire College. This was the first Festival of Sport to take place in person since 2019.
Pupils with disabilities in mainstream and Additional Support Need schools, as well as adults from the local communities, were given the chance to take part in disability sports which they may not usually have access to.
Over 100 Sport & Fitness students at Ayrshire College were involved in the planning and delivery of sports such as athletics, basketball, boccia, dance, football, handball, karate, and sitting volleyball.
The activities were supported by Kilmarnock Harriers, North Ayrshire Athletics Club, Kieran McMaster, Basketball Scotland, Dunlop Table Tennis Club and the Ayrshire Tigers Powerchair Football Club.
Famous former footballers Rose Reilly, Andy McLaren and Simon Donnelly were also in attendance to support the event and join in with the participants.
Dianne Campbell, Ayrshire Sportsability co-ordinator, said: “The Board of Ayrshire Sportsability were delighted to hold their Festival of Sport for the first time since 2019. Before the pandemic, this event had been an annual celebration for the charity since it began in 2001.
“It was fantastic to see nearly 400 people with disabilities from schools and organisations all over Ayrshire come and try new sports at the event, hosted by Ayrshire College.”
Alan Johnston, the Sport and Fitness lecturer at Ayrshire College who helped organise the event with Ayrshire Sportsabilty, said: "This has been a great event which allowed our students to plan, deliver and evaluate a ‘real life event’ which not only benefitted the participant but also developed the skills of the students in preparing for a career in the industry of sport and fitness. The feedback from the students has been extremely positive and many of them have now expressed an interest in working with this client group as a career, something they hadn’t considered prior to this event."
Rose Reilly MBE, who represented both Scotland and Italy at an international level, said: "I am honoured to be invited along to this event, everyone who attended this event had a ball. They all had smiles on their faces, they had lots of fun, and to see them in an environment where they could express themselves and showcase their own individual and group abilities was a pleasure to behold. I was thanked for coming along, however, it is me who should be thanking Ayrshire Sportsability for the invite, as I thoroughly enjoyed myself."
Former Scotland and Celtic footballer, Simon Donnelly, said: "I am delighted to be able to lend my support to this amazing event. I have been blown away by the ability, enthusiasm, and personalities of all the participants. To see so many talented individuals excelling in sports such as boccia, a sport I wasn’t even aware of until I saw it today, was amazing. This is the first time I have attended the Ayrshire Sportsabilty Festival of Sport, but it won’t be the last."
20 October 2022
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