Swan Hill Racecourse Play Bowls day
Here’s a question:
How do you get over 40 people of all ages and ability, smiling from ear to ear for 3 hours?
Answer: Take all of them out to a green and put a bowl in their hand!
Swan Hill Racecourse Bowls Club was the home to the first Play Bowls (All Abilities) Day for 2016. Forty-six participants of all abilities found themselves learning about Bowls and participating in Bowls games whilst enjoying the sunshine.
For an event now in its third year, the word must have gone around the Mallee area that Bowls is for everyone!
Disability Support Groups from the Murray Human Services – Swan Hill & Kerang Links as well as Balranald & Swan Hill Specialist School and other nearby communities were in attendance, along with Bowls Victoria and Bowls Australia, who assisted Mallee Sports and Swan Hill Racecourse Bowling Club in running the day.
The participation numbers increased for this year, as more All Abilities groups found themselves getting involved with the sport of Bowls.
Delia Baber from Mallee Sports Assembly said: “Swan Hill Racecourse Bowls Club and Mallee Sports Assembly have developed a great working relationship over the years to provide opportunities for people with disabilities to participate in Lawn Bowls and Junior Jack Attack Bowls”
And that they did.
The event began with a welcome from Mallee Sports Assembly and then two highly-enthusiastic groups quickly made their way out to the two greens to learn lawn bowls and play Junior Jack Attack games.
Many Swan Hill Racecourse club volunteers and carers assisted in helping the participants learn the game and made sure they had fun whilst doing so.
Bowls Footy and Bowls Soccer were favorites amongst the specialist school, who were ‘bowling goals’ from one side of the green to the other!
The Swan Hill Specialist School also had a familiar face participate in the day – DJ Weaver!
DJ will be making his debut in the Multi-Bowl Nationals in Adelaide later this month.
Lunch time came around and that meant some entertainment!
We had a few performances from the participants including Justin who belted out some Selena Gomez with the microphone and the Swan Hill Specialist School who danced along to Queen!
The participants went outside for some more Jack Attack games before finishing up with a show bag in the club rooms!
The participants were rapt to be able to show off their hard work with a certificate and a bag of goodies from Bowls Victoria at the end.
Thank you again to Delia and the Mallee Sports Assembly for organizing and running the day, as well as the Swan Hill Racecourse Bowls Club who catered for morning tea and lunch.
Additional thanks goes to all the club volunteers and carers & staff, who jumped in and helped teach the game of bowls to the participants.
If you’re interested in finding out more about how to get involved with All Abilities programs, or to assist your club in developing a program like this – please contact Bowls Victoria on 9861-7100.
