Every primary school child in the Makana area will have a soccer ball of their own by the end of May, says local businessman Campbell Westcott.
At least, this is the sincere hope of the owner of Albany Sports, who is set to launch the Adopt a Ball project this month.
Every primary school child in the Makana area will have a soccer ball of their own by the end of May, says local businessman Campbell Westcott.
At least, this is the sincere hope of the owner of Albany Sports, who is set to launch the Adopt a Ball project this month.
The project will be launched next week at Rhodes University, as the students will help market the project throughout the Makana district.
The initiative started when Westcott visited the local department of Sport, Recreation, Arts and Culture
in June last year, and found out that the department was no longer able to provide tennis balls for
primary schools.
These balls were used for hand/eye co-ordination training for young children and without such activities the development of the child is seriously hampered. Westcott thought of ideas to get each child their
own ball, and with the 2010 World Cup approaching, he thought of a soccer ball.
This, he hoped would fuel the excitement of the World Cup, and girls could use the ball to play netball as the ball will be size 4, the same size as them.
The balls are made out of hard, ground rubber so they can easily be repaired if punctured by injecting
glue into the ball.
While Westcott knows many businesses in Grahamstown have been approached by schools and clubs and put under pressure to donate to the cause, he thought of the idea to open the Adopt a Ball to everyone in the Makana district as “R30 is affordable for any employed person”.
He also said that many residents have children in that group and so many would be donating to a
ball to their children.
The project is across the board and not just for the underprivileged, as “all kids are coached and trained with hand/eye co-ordination,” said Westcott.
The Makana Adopt a Ball committee is made up of Rhodes University marketing and information, Cathy Braans as the Public Relations officer and Westcott as the project director.
The Rhodes student representative council was approached to help make Adopt a Ball a project for the 1st year students.
The students will hand out pamphlets as well as set up and run various challenges for the project.
