The Golf Foundation is ready to join the Youth Sport Trust and Sky Sports to help young people and families engage in a week of virtual sporting challenges at home, all over England (20 to 26 June).
With young people set to miss out on a school sport day this summer, the Youth Sport Trust’s annual campaign is this year being opened up to parents and families and reinvented as National School Sport Week at Home.
The Golf Foundation is the national charity that provides life changing opportunities to young people using the power of golf. European Tour player Graeme Storm, the charity’s official Ambassador, has generously agreed to tee-off the promotion of golf to families during this unique campaign.
Graeme, who has a young family of his own, was nominated by the Golf Foundation to join the Youth Sport Trust’s team of National School Sport Champions. The Golf Foundation will create the golf focus for the week by offering boys and girls a series of skills challenges and activity cards, demonstrated on video by Graeme, so they can enjoy learning golf at home with the family.
Taking place from 20 to 26 June, the UK-wide campaign will give families, communities, schools and sports clubs the chance to capture the enjoyment, competition and camaraderie they have been missing out on during weeks of school closures and social distancing. Anyone can register to take part (see end) and look out for the hashtag #NSSWtogether on social media.
This year, Sky Sports has teamed up with the Youth Sport Trust to supercharge the campaign, helping to inspire families across the country to take part. This builds on a long-term relationship between the broadcaster and the charity.
Graeme Storm’s selection as National School Sport Champion for Golf is well deserved. Starting back in 2018, the twice European Tour winner has given much of his time and expertise to support 14 local schools in his home area around Hartlepool.
Graeme also starred in the Hartlepool School Games Tri-Golf Festival in that year, offering coaching and encouragement while playing alongside 100 boys and girls from 10 schools. He has been leading enthusiastic class coaching sessions with the teachers in PE, using ‘Tri-Golf’, the successful Golf Foundation easy-to-play format which now brings golf to more than 3,000 schools and 300,000 school children each year.
Tri-Golf is a key strand of the Foundation’s HSBC Golf Roots school-to-club programme which offers a first golf experience to half-a-million boys and girls each year, and introducing more than 50,000 to golf club learning of the game, with support from The R&A, The Ryder Cup, the PGA, Sport England and the four Home Nations.
Golf Foundation CEO Brendon Pyle said: “We think it is wonderful that a leading international professional sportsperson is giving back to his local community in this way and Graeme Storm and the European Tour can be proud of this. Graeme has inspired so many young people and also their teachers, showing that golf is a fun, safe, competitive game that offers the learning of valuable transferable life skills.
“Graeme has won tournaments on the European Tour and travelled the world but his heart clearly remains close to home. Next week, our Golf Foundation team and Graeme will encourage children all over the country to try golf – and improve their golf – together with their families at home. This is a fantastic and inclusive initiative by the Youth Sport Trust at this challenging time.”
Graeme Storm said: “I am honoured to be chosen as the ‘National School Sport Champion for Golf’ and really hope that the National School Sport Week at Home encourages families, communities and those children at school to get involved, not only in golf but in other sports during this unprecedented time. Staying active is so important and Tri-Golf is a fantastic way to achieve this!”
Youth Sport Trust Chief Executive Ali Oliver said: “The Youth Sport Trust is thrilled to see supporters like the Golf Foundation backing National School Sport Week at Home to ensure no child misses out on their school sports day this summer.
“Right now, young people are missing their friends and missing the sense of connection they get through sport. Sport has such a crucial role to play in promoting young people’s wellbeing and this has never been more apparent than it is now. After weeks of isolation we hope that YST National School Sport Week at Home 2020 can help bring families, communities, schools and sports clubs back together.”
Anyone can register to take part and will receive videos and activity cards to help them plan a series of challenges across the week for their families, neighbours, friends or colleagues.