CU Cricket Club PowerHouseGames 2023
Well I couldn’t have asked for a better all-round team for leading my first PowerHouseGames.
What a wonderful, joyous occasion Friday was!
Power2Inspire teamed-up with the University of Cambridge Cricket Club, led by the fantastic Priyanka Patel, for their fourth PowerHouseGames at the Cambridge University Sports Centre. The students came out in force for an early Friday morning session and were absolutely brilliant, getting fully involved with all the schoolchildren and activities.
We were also thrilled to team up with illumina for the first time. Illumina are a global biotechnology company with offices in Cambridge and have a fantastic Employee Resource Group called Unique that brought together 18 diverse volunteers who took a corporate charity day to come and be part of our PowerHouseGames. And they were marvellous! Adapting the games to suit the children in their groups, encouraging them at every turn and ensuring everyone had loads of fun. We can’t wait to work together with them again in the future.
The Perse and Netherhall Schools brought students from across the secondary year groups and Castle Special school brought students from across their Pre-formal, Semi-formal and Formal education groups. They were all amazing. It was such a privilege to spend Friday morning hanging out with all these participants playing inclusive, adapted sports at our latest PowerHouseGames. You can see from the photos below the smiles and infectious laughter that carried us through the day.
With our Chief Ambassador and Founder, John Willis, taking a well-deserved family holiday it was down to me to help co-ordinate the day. I have to say that I was a little nervous coming in to run what is such a big event with around 80 people involved, but the team were incredible. I couldn’t have done it without the brilliant David Ellis, Steve Shaw, Paul Sanwell, Mark Slater, Ellis Maloney and Richard Hill as well as the illumina and CUCC volunteers. I was certainly given the best possible team to work with. Thank you all!
If the smiles and the hall resounding with laughter weren’t enough, then the comments from the school students suggest they really were having the best time:
Rosabel from The Perse said:
“I loved the experience so much and think it should definitely happen every year! It was brilliant to see a group of strangers get along so well and be so encouraging to everyone. I loved getting to know all the people in my group and everyone was so kind and friendly, and it was really interesting to find out everyone’s school, university, or job. The games were so much fun, and I especially loved the football which was very funny watching people speed walk. I would 100% do it again and the whole day I couldn’t stop smiling and laughing and I overall absolutely loved it!”
And these comments from students at Netherhall seem to back her up:
“It was a great day where people from everywhere got together to enjoy sport. I had so much fun learning new sports and being part of a supportive team.”
“I really enjoyed the energy and joy everyone put into all the activities, and it made it very exciting. I especially liked the walking football and seated netball as they were very fun. The whole thing felt very inclusive.”
“I really liked today because we got to work with new people including people from different schools which was nice. Also, we got to enjoy lots of new sports and ones I have never played before.”
“The day was very fun and well thought out. It was inclusive and fun. It was a fun experiencing new sports that everyone can take part in, and it was fun playing with other schools and people.”
What a fantastic testament to the whole vision and purpose of our PowerHouseGames!
A special mention has to be made of Priyanka Patel (pictured right in the photo of all the CUCC volunteers here). She has helped run a PowerHouseGames with the University Cricket Club every year of her time at Cambridge. What a superstar! Power2Inspire wishes you all the very best for your future.
Here’s what she had to say about how much she’s treasured PowerHouseGames over the past 4 years:
“Working with Power2Inspire through four PowerHouseGames has been one of my favourite things about my entire university experience. With a huge variety of people brought together over innovative games, from boccia and curling to goalball and table cricket, every experience has been unique but just as great as the last. I will never get tired of seeing the joy on all the kids’ faces as they immediately work together to accommodate each other’s differences without losing their competitive spirit. Every year our CUCC volunteers rave about how much fun they had, and I hope the tradition of CUCC PowerHouseGames continues far into the future!”
What are PowerHouseGames?
PowerHouseGames are incredible sports days using adapted games and sports, with activities designed to be accessible and fun for everyone, old and young, with disabilities and none, sporty and not. Participants are encouraged to test their beliefs about ability and disability and what it is to be different, to learn to respect other people’s differences, and Power2Inspire works with them to challenge their assumptions of what they can and cannot do.
Inspired? Then Get Involved!
Would your university sports team, or school love to be involved in a PowerHouseGames? Could your company support our mission by volunteering at one of our PowerHouseGames? If so, then we would love to hear from you. We are also always looking out for people willing to fundraise for Power2Inspire through their own inspiring means. Or, you could volunteer individually at one of our events, or you could give to the ongoing work of Power2Inspire. There are SO MANY WAYS we can all help to ensure “no on else is left on the bench!” Click the button here to find out more.
With special thanks to Paul Sanwell of OP Photography for his fantastic photography on the day. All photos used with permission
New Trustee role announced
Power2Inspire are seeking to recruit new Trustees, who will also be Members and Directors of the Company. Election is for a three-year term.
Power2Inspire info
Power2Inspire is a small and young, but dynamic, charity which stages adapted and inclusive sporting events. Our inspirational Chief Executive and Founder, who was born without fully formed arms and legs, was also born passionate about sport. Frustrated that as a child and teenager he could not play sports with his friends, he founded the charity whose Vision is that no-one should be left on the bench. In other words, everyone should have the opportunity to participate in sport (regardless of body type, sex, age, disability, religion or ethnicity) and the opportunity to do so together.
Our Mission is to embed inclusive sport in the sporting, education and community landscapes and we seek to do this through a variety of events, mainly for children and young people.
Trustee role
We would expect an applicant to share the charity’s vision and to have a strong interest in sport and a desire to make a difference to wellbeing, especially that of disabled people.
You will need to be able to dedicate at least two days a quarter (eight days a year) to the charity, made up of an evening at a board meeting, reading and preparation for that meeting, some administrative tasks (e.g. commenting on policy) in between meetings, and attendance at some of our events (based largely in Cambridge and the Eastern Region). Trustees are expected to take part in a number of the charity’s events each year.
An applicant would ideally have skills and experience in one (or more) of the following areas, although we welcome applications from any candidates who wish to share their experience and expertise in any area:
- Disability sport
- Safeguarding
- Data protection & Databases
- Finances, including gift aid & Treasury
- Lived experience around Inclusion, Diversity and Equality
- Encouraging children and young people to participate in sport
Trustee requirements
- To ensure that Power2Inspire complies at all times with its governing document, charity law, company law and any other relevant legislation
- To maintain proper financial control and accountability
- To set and maintain the vision, mission and values of the charity
- To develop with the executive the strategy for the charity
- To oversee employment procedures, policies and their implementation
- To safeguard the good name of Power2Inspire and to promote the charity
- To act in the best interests of the charity, never in the interests of yourself or another organisation
Ready to apply?
We envisage interviews to take place week beginning 21 June with final candidates to be invited to either our Festival of Inclusive Tennis (Saturday 3 July) or Super Sensory 1km (Sunday 11 July) as the final stage of appointment process, before confirming appointments by close of play Wednesday 14 July 2021.
To apply, please email a copy of your CV and covering letter to the Chair of Trustees, Jeremy Macklin.
For informal enquiries about the role, please email CEO, John Willis.
The Run Everyone 2021 Totals!
We did it! We’ve come to the end of Team #Power2InspireUK’s inclusive Run Everyone event: 31 days of running, walking, wheeling and more! Together we’ve raised over £4,000 and as a team travelled 3,758km.
Power2InspireUK competed alongside 106 other teams as part of Cambridge Half Marathon’s Run Everyone event this March, coming in 15th overall. Shout out to the winning team, the No Drama Llama Runners, mainly because that is the best team name I’ve ever heard, but also because between them they travelled 26,370km!
Our inspirational Founder and CEO, John Willis, set himself the challenge of walking a half marathon over the course of March, and in the end ‘waddled’ 29.5kms. This was 20 laps of the garden every day, and a bonus 2kms playing a round of golf at Cambridge Lakes golf course.
“It was really useful having the simple target of 20 laps every day to keep me moving because I know that it’s really important for me as a disabled person to keep the exercise up,” John said. “It was also really helpful to know there was a team of others doing it; Rosie doing her wheelchair spins every day, and others including Morris and Massimo who’ve come out and run for Power2Inspire.”
It was a tight competition for longest distance among the P2I team: Morris de Bortoli just pipped Richard Laybourne and Scott Annett to the top of our leaderboard. He ran 426km during March, which is a fantastic achievement.
And with generous donations from Jeremy, Mark, Morris and many others, we’re close to reaching our target of raising £5,000. Your donations will go towards putting on PowerHouseGames in schools once we’re out of lockdown and supporting our Festivals of Inclusive Sport this summer. So far we’ve got cricket, tennis, golf, boccia and badminton festivals in the works – confirmed details below with more to come!
Thank you to everyone who participated, donated, and supported Power2Inspire through the Run Everyone challenge. It’s been so much fun to work together to promote inclusive sport, and keep an eye out for future inclusive challenges!
Join Team #Power2InspireUK for Run Everyone
Power2Inspire is kicking off this Spring 2021 with Run Everyone, an event that aims to promote and showcase inclusive sport in action.
With the postponement of the Cambridge Half Marathon (CHM) to the 17th of October, the CHM have created a virtual running event that gives anybody – and we mean anybody – the opportunity to participate.
The idea for Run Everyone was initially sparked by a conversation surrounding the fact that the conventional half marathon is limited by the nature of the event – some cannot run 13 miles and wheelchairs are not allowed for reasons of space and safety. Run Everyone is an opportunity not only to encourage inclusive sport, but to demonstrate that by adapting a traditional event, anyone can join.
Click the image to sign up NOW!
At Power2Inspire, we are working towards a society where everyone can enjoy sport together, regardless of age, gender, faith, ethnicity or disability.
– John Willis, Founder and Ceo of Power2Inspire
Each Run Everyone participant will be asked to sign up to run for a team, with a £25 entry fee to the organisers. All funds raised will enable Power2Inspire to expand our university PowerHouseGames to at least two additional universities. These PowerHouseGames are inclusive sports days that bring together university students, state, independent and SEN school pupils, led by corporate volunteers.
We are very excited to be launching Run Everyone. During the past year, it has become clearer than ever before that physical exercise, as well as creating a sense of togetherness, are essential to our society.
– Adam Moffat, Event Director of the TTP Cambridge Half Marathon
We have created #Power2InspireUK as our team name to appear at the top of the team list. Please encourage your family, friends, and colleagues to sign up. This is an ideal opportunity for those less mobile to join in, one amazing inclusive community working together, and register with team #Power2InspireUK. Once you and your peers have signed up, invite others to join your team and get training! The bigger we can make our team, the better.
As a Run Everyone participant, you will be able to log the distance you run, walk, or wheel, as long as it meets the 100m minimum. This required distance makes it easy to include children or persons unable to complete a half marathon: however, you will most certainly be surprised by the distances that you and those around you cover over the course of a month! You have the entirety of March to take on the challenges that you and your team set for yourselves – and to exceed your own expectations!
It is our mission to bring community back to the workplaces and clubs of Cambridge by encouraging everyone to get running. Whether you run 100m or 100km, every step counts towards the final goal.
– Adam Moffat, Event Director of the TTP Cambridge Half Marathon
Not only is this event open to everyone, from first-time runners to seasoned athletes, but it also gives you the flexibility to run as much and as far as you want, be it for one day or every day of the month. Every run counts!
All participants will receive a T-shirt and medal for competing, and the more kilometres your team completes, the closer you will get to the top of the leaderboard!
Our goal is to have at least 1,000 participants join us throughout March, with at least 100 disabled people, 10 media and press officers to help spread the word, and £2,500 total funds raised.
Join us this March as we step into the spring with a fresh, goal-oriented, and above all inclusive mindset, to regain the sense of togetherness that we can all achieve through sport and ever-expanding communities.
It really doesn’t matter who you are or what you believe, what’s important is that you get involved in sport alongside other people and have lots of fun. We’ll be entering an inclusive team and look forward to walking, wheeling and running in competition with other businesses and organisations across Cambridge in March.
– John Willis, Founder and CEO of Power2Inspire
Ready to start fundraising?
Join Team #Power2InspireUK and get raising money at JustGiving.
More questions?
If you’d like to read more about the Virtual event then head over to the official page by clicking the image below.
Don't forget to follow us on Twitter to get all the very latest on Team #Power2InspireUK and Run Everyone 2021
Run Everyone 2021 for Power2Inspire
We are delighted to be an official charity partner for Run Everyone 2021 – Cambridge’s biggest event this March.
This event is open to everyone, from first time runners to seasoned athletes, you can run every day or just one day, every run counts. Everyone will get a t-shirt and medal for competing. Sign up on your own, with your family and friends and join Team #Power2InspireUK – the inclusive team! We would love as many as people, of all backgrounds and athletic abilities to join us to make a big splash as a truly inclusive event.
It costs £25 to enter and we hope everyone will be able to raise some fantastic funds for Power2Inspire as we continue our mission to ensure “No one is left on the bench”! For that you will get a bespoke running top sent to your home before March, fantastic technology, creating exciting leaderboards and interactive maps and a quality medal sent to your home following the event. We also have the opportunity to earn virtual goody bags, as our team clocks up the KM’s.
The event will take place over the month of March 2021 with each team member being entered automatically for both of the two categories available, namely most KM run or fastest Half Marathon.
Our inspirational Founder and CEO, John Willis, has decided to walk 700m every day throughout March, come rain or shine, completing the distance of a half marathon over the month. Would you like to do the same? Or could you do a weekend run pushing the little one in the buggy, or count up all the dog walks through March??
Team #Power2InspireUK will be competing under 6 leaderboards:
- Most members entered per organisation
- Most KM per organisation
- Most KM per individual
- Fastest individual
- Fastest 4 per team
- Most money raised
The minimum age for this event is just 4 years old, so grab your kids, grandparents or work colleagues and let’s get outside, having fun and raising money for a fantastic charity.
To sign up go to the Run Everyone website by clicking the image here and sign up. Don’t forget to join Team #Power2InspireUK when you sign up so that we can all run virtually together as the biggest team for Inclusive Sport.
THANK YOU and GOOD LUCK!