We are now only 3 days away from going on that amazing life changing trip to Jamaica!
I personally can’t wait for the trip. After my visit to Jamaica in November 2009 to help Courtney Walsh set up his foundation I have been looking forward to taking the London based MLD/Phys disabled young people back to play them. They were and are an extremley impressive team and the boys will have to be on form to come home from the West Indies with a result. The boys will also be playing against the Rio Cobre Young Offenders Institute which wil be a great experience for all involved.
Alex Bassan will be helping me manage and coach this team in Jamaica… His a good lad who puts the young people’s thoughts first so he will be great!!!
The VI team which is being run by Danny Baker & Beth Evans have all been working hard since this trip was set up in December. They will be playing against the Jamaican national squad who are the strongest VI team in West Indies so again they have a hard task up against them.
Danny and Beth have gone out their way to make sure the VI team received the very best preperation. Danny and Beth both have a lot of respect not just from the VI team but from everyone going because they both work extremley hard and will continue to do so in Jamrock!!
All Volunteers, Young People and C4C Staff have worked extremley hard in their spare time to raise money for this trip…
Staff Members did a 15 Mile Run, ran Quiz Nights, talent shows to co-ordinate, organised live music at the cricket centre and much, much more all in the effort to stick to our ethos, and that is to make sure that we change the lives of disadvantaged young people throughout the world. This trip will certainly do that, not just for the young people we are taking but for the young people in Jamaica that we are playing. They will get to mix with other young people from another country which to them will be amazing!
Someone who I can’t miss a mention about is our Director of Programmes Andy Dalby-Welsh… He is the Pride of Britain for a reason!!! He has worked non stop to make sure that the 26 young people going have the best trip possible to be apart of… Without him none of this is possible and everyone can’t thank Andy enough for his efforts to always get the job done! He is a true inspiration to staff and young people alike… A true legend!!!
We have lots of volunteers coming to help who will all be and have been awesome like Val, Julie, Keith, Karen, Maggie, Bethanie, Jacq, Sam and I cant think of any more but sure there are… All these volunteers are crucial to making sure that everyone has the great experience they should.
During our trip I will be reguarly adding notes to this page as a blog of our time out there so that everyone can see how we are getting on.
On behalf of Cricket for Change I would like to thank everyone who has helped out to raise money to make this trip possible! I was lucky enough to have been invovled with the Barbados VI trip 2 years ago and we saw mass change in a lot of the young people that came so the new people we are taking to this one will no doubt have the same life changing experiences as the crop before them!
All that remains for me to say is that the next time I message you I will be in sunny Kingston with 26 young people having an amazing experience!
Thank You All
Adam Hall
C4C Development Manager