Disability Recreation and Sports SA: 2013

Tuesday 10 December 2013

Festive Times

Well can you believe it? It's December already and Christmas is only weeks away. This time of year is so busy and full of exciting events and catch up's. I must admit I am looking forward to the staff Christmas party next week and I can't wait to see what my secret Santa brings me.

Lobethal Christmas Pageant.
Speaking of festive times the DRS float for the Lobethal Christmas Pageant is shaping up nicely. We have ten DRS staff members and supporters joining in the event. We will have our mascots Webster and our newest mascot Wanda involved along with wheelchairs, hand cycles and 1000's of lollies to be thrown out to the crowd. Another exciting aspect of the pageant is we will be showing off the newly sign written enclosed trailer. The trailer will be branded with the new DRS name and images. The pageant is the perfect way to christen it! If you would like to come along to the pageant please take a look the Lights of Lobethal Website for details. http://www.lightsoflobethal.com.au/

No Strings Attached Theatre Of Disability.
I would like to introduce the No Strings Attached Theatre Of Disability. This organisation is a community based theatre who specialise in performances with the majority of cast being people who have a disability. I had the pleasure of joining in on the fun at the annual No Strings Attached Theatre Of Disability ‘Connect’ picnic on the 27th of November at The Gums at Tranmere. The sun was beaming down but the 32 degree heat didn’t stop the enthusiasm of the performers.

The performance I saw was spine chilling, the effort each performer put into their individual roll was absolutely outstanding. The roles were enthusiastic and believable, the story line was captivating and interesting. I could tell many hours of rehearsing had gone into the performance and the dedication showed. I hadn’t even met these performers but I felt truly proud of their efforts.

We are looking forward to working with No Strings Attached in 2014. For future information on this wonderfulorganisation please visit their website here:

Gail Miller Interview.....
'What We're Wheelie Like'

WHAT IF.... your best friend was in a wheelchair and people always stared at them when you were out together?
How would that make you feel?
How would that make THEM feel?
'What We're Wheelie Like' answers all of these questions.

I met with Gail Miller earlier in the month at her stunning scrub surrounded home in the Adelaide hills. I thoroughly enjoyed my time with Gail and learned a lot about her book 'What we're Wheelie Like' and also learned a lot about her life views. Gail has a wealth of wisdom and you will clearly see this in the interview below.

Here is a short blurb Gail Wrote about the book.

PEEP INSIDE.... and you will discover that people who use wheelchairs or have any other disability are regular people, with feelings, who live their lives a little differently.
Some things are tricky for them, but they often come up with clever ways to do things. They like to go to parties and dress in nice clothes.
They laugh and have fun, just like you.
That's 'What they're Wheelie like...'
Take a look at at Gail's interview and learn the story behind this educational book.

Introducing our new female mascot...Wanda!
As you may have noticed we have been having fun with Webster of late. The 'Where's Webster' game has been a hit and I recall only one WW that people found hard to guess. Stay tuned for some more difficult 'Where's Webster' locations.
Mark our CEO felt Webster may feel a little lonely and introducing him to Wanda would be of benefit. We now have two mascots to help promote DRS and of course another mascot for the Whizz Kidz to beat up ;)

Interview with Rod Farr..
After commencing my employment here at DRS I soon came to realise that Rod was a key player in the organisation. Rod has a very positive outlook on life and clearly has a lot to offer to fellow people with disabilities. Rod was the first person I interviewed and I found it hard to edit his video as there was so much valuable content. I did manage to come up with a powerful video that I hope people have enjoyed and gained some life tools they can take away.
Take a look here:

Up and Coming Events
Push and Power Finals
Monday 16th December, 6:30pm
St Pauls College, 792 Grand Junction Road, Gilles Plains
The grand final for all 3 sports;
-Balloon Soccer
-Hockey
-Touch Football

BBQ and Raffles on the night.
Spectators Welcome.

Basketball Grand Final
Tuesday 17th December.
207-255 Hampstead Rd, Northfield
3rd place playoff 6:00pm ROCKETS V AIR MASTERS
Grand Final 7:00pm SOUP V DEMONS
Presentations to follow.
Spectators Welcome

I hope you have enjoyed this week's blog and I look forward to updating you next week on the Push and Power and Basketball finals results.

Take easy

Nicki Camac
Social Media Officer
Disability Recreation and Sports SA
nicki@drssa.org.au
08 8234 1533
0411 020 733

www.drssa.org.au
https://www.facebook.com/DRSSouthAustralia?ref=hl
http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCf-bpfX_awqLsyJuMf8marw
http://instagram.com/#disabilityrecandsportsa
https://twitter.com/DRSSA_

Monday 2 December 2013

Our Latest Adventures!

Tuesday 3rd of December 2013

With over 330 people viewing our first blog last week, we are excited to publish this weeks blog.Take a look at what we have been up to:

Interview with Dale Elliott
I had the privilege of interviewing Dale Elliott at the beautiful Botanic Gardens early in November. Dale is not one to sit down and take life as it comes. As a commercial pilot, business entrepreneur, award winning comedy performer and extreme sport master, Dale lives and breathes his message about living life to the fullest and not letting his wheelchair get in the way. Take a look below at what Dale had to say:

Dale truly is an open book of knowledge and wisdom - his life experiences and bubbly personality is infectious. If you would like to learn more about Dale check out his website at www.daleelliott.com

Calling Christmas Pageant Fans!
We are looking forward to participating in the Lobethal Christmas Pageant on Monday the 23rd of December. What a way to warm up for Christmas and get into the festive spirit. The Lobethal lights have been a fixture in the the Adelaide Hills for over sixty years and has now evolved into the largest Community Christmas Light Display in the Southern Hemisphere.

We are looking for more participants to take part and join us on our DRS float. Please contact Nicki via email at nicki@drssa.org.au to find out more.

Indoor Rowing
Jacob our Development Officer organised a great 'come and try' Indoor Rowing session with Rowing SA at West Lakes Shores. Rowing SA offers a fantastic indoor rowing facility for people with disabilities. The facility includes an interactive big screen that allows a visual racing scene for a race like feel. Rowing gets the whole body moving and is fantastic for fitness and clearing the mind. Contact Jacob via email on jacob@drssa.org.au for more details.
Here's all the action:

The Whizz Kidz meet the Adelaide Bite Baseball Team

It was a sea of red Whizz Kidz T-shirts at the Norwood Oval on Friday the 22nd November. The DRS Whizz Kidz were invited to be guests at the Adelaide Bite Baseball game and formed a high five tunnel for the players to run through.

The kids enjoyed watching the game from the front row seats and hanging out with our mascot Webster. One of the Whizz Kidz was lucky enough to catch one of the flying balls and have a keep sake to remember the occasion.

The Whizz kidz Clubs runs every Friday night and is coordinated by our Development Officer Jacob. If you would like to get your child involved in this fun and interactive club please contact Jacob for details via email at jacob@drssa.org.au

The Whizz Kidz before the game. Some looking excited and some not.

Support The Walk, Fund Raiser

Andy Hensel originally from Port Pirie will soon be on his way to the USA to take part in the Project Walk program to help him fulfill his dream of walking again. Andy suffered a T6 and T7 spinal injury in a freestyle motor cross accident in 2012 that left him paraplegic.

Andy’s family and friends organised a successful fundraising event called Support The Walk. The event took place at the trotting tracks in Port Pirie on the 9th of November and raised a huge $23,000. These funds will go towards Andy's Project Walk fund.

Mark Howells DRS CEO attended the event and spoke to the crowd about the importance of people with disabilities participating in their chosen sport.
All of us here at DRS wish Andy all the best with his dream of walking again! Go get em Andy!

Andy Hensel with his supportive friends and family.


Andy Hensel and Mark Howells

Join us on our social media journey

I hope you are as excited about our latest adventures and social media platforms as we are!

https://www.facebook.com/DRSSouthAustralia

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCf-bpfX_awqLsyJuMf8marw

http://instagram.com/disabilityrecandsportsa

https://www.twitter.com/DRSSA_

Check out our website here www.drssa.org.au

.........................................................................................

We would love your input and feedback and welcome you to comment and share our blog.

Until next time.....

Take it easy,

Nicki Camac

Wednesday 20 November 2013

Welcome to our Blog....

Firstly a huge welcome to our first Disability Recreation and Sports South Australia blog. We are having fun with our active social media platforms and gaining an exciting response from our followers.

Social media allows us to spread the word about DRS and keep our members informed on our events and news. We are enjoying filming and photographing games, events, training sessions, recreational activities and even interviews, which you can see in full on our web site & you tube channel.

There has been a lot of activity in the DRS world in the past weeks and as this is our first blog we have lots of news to catch up on. The first event that pop's to mind is the 2013 AGM and Awards Night held at the Norwood Hotel on the 19th of October. What a fun and interactive night it was, and we don't mind saying so ourselves, a much new and improved event from previous years. So a BIG thank you to the Human Movement and Sport Event Program students from Uni SA who helped organise the night. These students put their heart and soul into making our event a great success! The night rolled along smoothly and after a short and sweet AGM we moved onto awarding our DRS member winners!

Congratulations to our award winners:

Barry Grear AO Service to the Association Award
Grant Allen Kevin Bawden Encouragement Award
Sam White Most Outstanding Member of the Year
Jesse Aungles Most Outstanding Performance
Caleb Crowden Junior Member of the Year
DRS Award Dr Ruth Marshall

Check out the video of the night here

We welcome our brand new Powerchair Football Team the Sabres to the DRS sporting clan. The following people were selected for the team and represented South Australia at this year’s Australian Powerchair Football Association National Championships in Sydney in October.

Chantel Bongiovanni
Santo Bongiovanni
Jonathan Grigg
Damien Porter
Nathan Van Roy

Well done to the SA SABRES on their best performance at the nationals defeating the NZ team with a crushing 7-1 victory!!! An outstanding performance by the entire team with everyone scoring a goal!! The Sabres officially finish off in 5th spot at the Australian Powerchair Football Association National Championships! Go Sabres!

Where's Webster

We believe that having a mascot is a important component of a organisation and we LOVE ours.

Webster is his name and attending events is his game! Webster has been very busy of late and has decided to be a little cheeky and take photos of his adventures and let our social media followers guess where he is. He offers location clues and a photo or two of him and the guessing game begins. We have had a great response from Where's Webster and we personally welcome you to join in on the fun and guess his location. Wheres Webtser is uploaded to Facebook, Twitter and Instagram on Monday mornings of each week.

Amy Gillett Foundation Ride

3rd November 2013

The sun was shining down on cyclists at the Amy Gillett ride and it was evident it was a perfect day with the masses of attendees. We had a bunch of people representing DRS including Simon Brockhoff, Keith Barton, Brian Moldenhauer, Grant Allen, Belinda,Emily and Brianna Galbraith. There were smiles all round on the finish line and the overall atmosphere was electric. It felt great to be apart of this event and help live the road safety legacy for the late Amy Gillett. We look forward to attending next year!

Here's all the action

Sourcing local activities

for our members

Lolly Jar Circus

Members and parents can find it hard to find fun, exciting and accepting activities for themselves

or their children. We are excited at DRS to be building on our recreational activities data base. Our goal of being a one stop shop for disability information for all is fast approaching.

Our social media and especially our You Tube Channel is allowing us to video local activities and put short productions together to show members. This gives people a visual and clear understanding of the activity and allows them to see if its right for them or their family member. We have found some great recreational programs in Adelaide including the Lolly Jar Circus. This program is a new Adelaide-based community circus initiative, striving to create an integrative and fun learning environment. It caters for people from all walks of life including those with physical or intellectual disabilities. Here's our short video on the lolly jar circus.

Gym Sense

The INEA YMCA at Walkerville offers a great program called Gym Sense. It was developed in conjunction with an occupational therapist from Disability Services. The program runs from 3-4pm every Thursday during the school term. The classes can be attended casually or children can be enrolled for the term. The cost is $14 for a casual lesson or $115 for the term. Parents are encouraged to actively participate with their children. The class involves free exploration time on the gymnastics equipment, a group obstacle course focusing on gymnastic skill development and parachute time. Here's a short video on the Gym Sense program.