 This year’s January Challenge was our most successful yet! Both in terms of money raised and the number of members that got involved – 18 members raising a total of £620 for Coventry Haven, our wonderful affiliated charity. Like most challenges, the month was filled with high and low points. People got fitter and more flexible, Arrin and Skells ran their first half marathon, Luke ran 200km (double his target – leaving us all in his dust there), and Chan and Holly branched out for their vegan and vegetarian diets. We can overlook Eden’s surprisingly predictable tonsilitis, Charlotte’s broken body and the toothpaste that turned out to not be so vegan after all. That’s all behind us. The team put in a valiant effort, deservedly winning the status of Mixedy Member of the Week for their tenacity and charitable actions, and wracking up a fantastic fundraising total that left us all very happily surprised.   For context, we set the original fundraising target at £200 before quickly doubling it to £400, and even then, we were able to smash it. The January Challenge is often a big event in the calendar year, and this year was a perfect example of that.
Congratulations to the whole team for completing the month, it was worth all the hard work and time you invested, to raise so much money for such an important cause. Coventry Haven were absolutely thrilled with our stats, and the donations given will go a long way in supporting their essential work protecting women and children from discrimination, economic hardship, and abuse (alongside much more, Coventry Haven does a vast amount of fundamentally vital work). Thank you to everyone who supported us and donated to such an essential cause. Onto the next challenge! celebrating black athletes in hockeyOctober is Black History Month and it’s been fantastic to see so many clubs and societies celebrate black individuals and teams.
We want to take this time to celebrate some of hockey’s fantastic black athletes, but also to reflect on the reputation of hockey and its limitations when trying to encourage participation from potential black players. As Rosie Sykes said herself, hockey is often thought of as a posh game, and those who go to schools without hockey facilities are often not encouraged to play, whether at school or club level. Universities can offer the opportunity to try sports that previously weren’t accessible, and we at Mixed Hockey welcome everyone to the pitches But the fact remains that pre-existing privileges and racial/class disparities often mean black players don’t see sufficient representation to feel encouraged to join. Mixed Hockey wholly supports GB Hockey’s ‘Stick It To Racism’ campaign condemning discrimination of any kind in the sport and beyond. We hope that identifying and resolving issues of discrimination also within the foundations of the sport will encourage hockey to review its often classist development programmes and, consequently, pickings for international and performance teams, to encourage true diversity and representation within the sport. Everyone is welcome at Mixed Hockey, and we will never tolerate discrimination. Thank you to black athletes for elevating the sport. Players such as Rosie Sykes, Ore Ogunlana, Darcy Bourne, Kwandwane Browne, and Darren Cheesman provide hope for a more diverse and equal future of hockey. Black history is our history Sources: http://bit.ly/Rosie_Sykes_her_story | https://www.instagram.com/p/CG8msRIges1/ | https://www.ivyuntold.com/.../that-black-girl-on-the... | https://thebigkickoff.com/.../gb-u21-hockey-player-darcy.../ Stick It To Racism: http://bit.ly/StickItToRacism
October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month and Mixed Hockey got involved by wearing pink to our training session last night as a visual way to raise awareness.
Breast cancer is the most common form of cancer for women in the UK, making up 30% of all female cases. But it also affects men, with around 390 men in the UK diagnosed with invasive breast cancer annually. There’s a stigma around men developing breast cancer because many don’t consider men to have breasts, but both men and women have breast tissue and the symptoms, diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer are similar for both. This is why it’s so important to raise awareness, break the stigma and encourage everyone to check their chests for abnormalities – it is the most common form of cancer for women, but it is not only a women’s disease. Take care and check your bodies! For more information on breast cancer awareness, how to check for symptoms and when to seek medical advice, check out the Coppafeel and Breast Cancer Now websites: https://coppafeel.org/ https://breastcancernow.org/ Sources: https://www.cancerresearchuk.org/health-professional/cancer-statistics/incidence/common-cancers-compared#heading-Zero https://www.againstbreastcancer.org.uk/our-research/about-breast-cancer/male-breast-cancer Wow! What a year! To start off, I’d just like to say an ENORMOUS thank you to everybody; thank you for taking part, for donating and for getting your friends and family involved, either by donating or by sharing what we’re up to as a club and spreading awareness. We kickstarted my tenure as Charities and Welfare with the fun-filled 2019 term three (RIP term three 2020), which included the charity hockey tournament, Summer Sixes, and a charity raffle at our first ever Awards Evening. Summer Sixes is a huge, day-long tournament organised by Ladies’ and Men’s Hockey which gets many different clubs and societies involved to raise money for their clubs’ charities. It had us dressing up as avatars, animals and even emojis, and we placed as runners up for the plate, which was not too shabby at all!  Awards Evening was an evening created by our presidents of 18/19 and 19/20, Mezza and Rads respectively, with the objective of celebrating the year and the achievements of both the club and individual members. Also included in the night was a charity raffle, where money was raised for Coventry Haven through raffle ticket sales for prizes such as free coffee and cake at a Leamington café, Lush gift boxes and circle privileges. A great moment was when Rai won a raffle prize and decided to choose the ‘donate a Purple Angel’ circle privilege, even though he was already a social sec by this point, the silly goose. Summer came and went, but not without a Summer Challenge. Fourteen of us put on our walking boots and took on Scafell Pike, aka the tallest mountain in England (it definitely sounds more impressive when you say it like that).  Scafell Pike team: at the base! We set off in glorious sunshine, the weather was truly quite wonderful, and we got back to our cars just before the sun had fully set. Why did it take us so long to complete the trek? I can’t quite remember, but it may or may not have had something to do with the trip leader deciding to take everybody on a longer return route and almost getting the group lost (the faith the team put into a trip leader who had only a week before learned how to use a compass was quite remarkable). But who knows? We can’t be sure… We finally got back to the hostel, and we had a Maccies feast before a well-deserved sleep. We raised a phenomenal £1,207 for Coventry Haven, which made me so proud of the Summer Challenge team and all the hard work and effort they put in. I hope you all remember the trip as fondly as I do.  Scafell Pike team: at the summit! Term one oversaw a soup kitchen takeover, as Mixed Hockey worked with Helping Hands Community Project (HHCP) in Leamington to feed the homeless and precariously housed in the local area. It was great to work with HHCP and to better understand the issue surrounding homelessness.  Term one also oversaw a Mario Kart tournament on the Big Screen on the Piazza, an idea created by our charities and welfare sec of 18/19, as well as several charity karaoke (or ‘charaoke’ as Nick would say) events, including a Christmas edition. I’m certain everybody who came managed to publicly embarrass themselves one way or another, but that would be the nature of karaoke, so you could say it was a great success! The Mario Kart was incredibly fun and brought out the competitive side of some of our members. It was very interesting to learn of Rads’ devotion to Bowser, at the very least. Big shout out to the random guy that came along, played for a couple hours and beat everybody in pretty much every match he partook in. Solid effort. We finished off the year with some bucket-shaking for HHCP after a pantomime in Leamington and a Christmas present collection for Coventry Haven, so we were clearly feeling the Christmas spirit. The presents we collected were things such as Play-Doh, colouring pencils, children’s clothes and various sweet treats. They were donated to Coventry Haven to be given to families who would otherwise be unable to provide presents to their children, so thank you all for your generosity, you made a lot of families’ Christmas. We then kickstarted 2020 with our January Challenge, which raised a super £235 for Coventry and Warwickshire Mind. We has members partaking in Veganuary and Dry January, as well as pledging to run 15k, eat only British produce, and give up lie-ins, snacking and Vialli’s nuggets (the final one was to actually eat a vegetarian diet throughout January, but the nuggets was what Eve was most sad to give up in order to achieve this). The dedication of everybody who partook was brilliant, I’m so proud of you all! Thank you to the rest of the club for your support and donations, they definitely helped to keep us motivated. Term two oversaw Games Night (aka a night of Kahoot! and Bingo); Charities Week; the annual Charity Club Quiz; a 5k run as part of LGBT+ Awareness Month; and a warehouse takeover. Charities Week was a great opportunity to collaborate with our good pals Mixed Netball and Tennis, as well as trying out their sports, giving Dutty and Saxxy the opportunity to show off their multi-faceted sporting ability.  To end the term, we teamed up with HHCP once more, helping them in their warehouse. Brownie became a modern-day Cinderella for his cleaning duties, Dutty taught Alison about the wonders of mod 12, and we learned that Sarbs is a sore loser when it comes to the plastic bag folding Olympics.  Then, it has to be mentioned, Covid-19 came a-calling, and we’ve been staying safely inside. To try and raise morale during these difficult times, we hosted a quarantine quiz (or a ‘quizantine’) to raise money for NHS Charities Together. We raised £54 from the quiz, which was fantastic, and a great way to raise money to support our healthcare heroes in these incredibly demanding and extraordinary times. All this, and I haven’t even mentioned the pub quizzes, charity shoot-outs and the Warwick does Strictly Come Dancing, all things Mixed Hockey got involved with to support the fundraising initiatives of other clubs and societies. Overall, we’ve raised £2,027.75 for our charity, Coventry Haven, and £730.50 for various other charities, including Mind, HHCP and Stonewall UK. We’ve also run training sessions aimed to raise awareness surrounding the LGBT+ community, the This Girl Can movement, and we’ve taken part in the Show Racism the Red Card campaign.  I have loved my year as the charities and welfare sec so much, and I have all of you to thank for your enthusiasm and involvement to make it so enjoyable. I hope you all stay safe and well during these extraordinary times, and I look forward to seeing you all again as soon as we can.
Hasta luego, con cariño, Alison xoxo |
