Shirley Gymnatics Club 'Gymnastics for all' Shirley Gymnastics Club Unicef Haiti Appeal February 2010 Shirley Gymnastics Club, Sponsored tumbling session in aid of the Unicef Haiti Earthquake Children's Appeal .Saturday 20th February 10am - 6pm www.justgiving.com/ShirleyGymnasticsClub Dear Members On Saturday 20th February, 49 gymnasts & coaches (aged between 8 & 22) from Shirley Gymnastics Club in Croydon, took part in a marathon sponsored tumbling challenge in aid of the Unicef Haiti Earthquake Children’s Appeal. I’m sure everyone cannot fail to have been moved by the plight of the people of Haiti in the aftermath of the earthquake that ravaged the country last month. Unicef have been instrumental in providing relief to the devastated region but need your help more than ever to reach out to the hundreds of thousands still in desperate need of aid. Haiti is one of the poorest countries in the world. The children of Haiti will undoubtedly remain challenged for the rest of their lives, many of them orphaned with no family to care for them. The young gymnasts and coaching staff of Shirley Gymnastics Club wanted to contribute in some small way towards the relief effort in recognition of the challenge the children of Haiti now face. We wanted to do our own “challenge” to raise as much as we can for this worthy cause and fantastic charity. Our challenge was to do a sponsored Tumbling session non stop for a total of 8 hours. Each tumble had to be unassisted, and for the entirety of the event, a gymnast must be on the track at all times. The challenge was to do 7,000 somersaults within the time limit. Each somersault was counted by an adjudicating panel of volunteers. Well, how did we do? We had 2 weeks to pull the plan together, including building the website, contacting the media, planning the day, organising helpers, and most importantly ensuring the gymnasts were up for the challenge. The club has over 250 members, but due to the nature of the challenge, where each tumble had to be unassisted for the entire 8 hour duration, we decided to select gymnasts from our 3 squads. Emerald, Ruby and Sapphire Squads We planned the sequence for the day in terms of rest periods, and ensuring we always had at least 1 person doing a tumble at all times, but the squad members decided to tear this plan up. They decided on mass they were going to carry on all day, with minimal rest breaks and smash the target set. Well 21,774 tumbles later, they certainly did that. The sheet toxic energy and enthusiasm in the gym was amazing. It’s not a place we normally allow the parents into, but this was special and we wanted them to participate by supporting, counting and simply taking in the atmosphere. The “challenge”, as we named it, finished at 6pm as energetically as it had started at 10am, with all the gymnasts clapping and cheering each other on to increase the tumble count. Individual competitions took place, as well as a degree of "showboating" their extreme talents. As a parent said to me towards the end of the afternoon, “they were privileged to be a part of the day. What the gymnasts got out of this in terms of camaraderie, you cannot buy” Unicef have expressed their gratitude to all our gymnasts, coaches, parents and sponsors for the time, money and effort put into this event to help raise over £2,335 for the Haiti children. Isabelle from Unicef quotes "This really is an incredible amount, and will make a real and significant difference to the work UNICEF is doing in Haiti." With 40% of all Hiatians being children under 14, the earthquake crisis is a children's emergency. Our children should be proud they have made such a signigicant contribution to this crisis. In her letter, Isabelle stated "the money raised could buy 6 large framed tents, big enough to be used as a temporary school or provide safe clean drinking water for 235 families" You can read the full letter here. The amount raised so far does not include any amounts raised through the sponsor forms. Additional donations are still being received by the Just Giving website so we hope the total raised will exceed £3,000. A special thank you to Fusion Lifestyle for providing out training facility for free on the day. The centre staff were excellent and supported us throughout the day, but the real stars were the 49 gymnasts who participated. They were truly immense. Something very special happened on Saturday 20th February. In fact it happened 21,774 times. Shirley Gymnastics Club Contacts: Debbie Campbell (Treasurer) 020 8777 5814, Gill White (Secretary) 020 8668 5992 Gemma Carter (Head Coach) 07711422420 (Club Mobile) Colin Perry (Chairman) 07979 537708. Sue Taylor (Club Welfare officer 07871 064701). Kim Hitchin (merchandising) 07872 624739 To remove your name from our mailing list, please click here. Questions or comments? E-mail us at admin@shirleygymnasticsclub.co.uk