Garioch Goes for Gold at First Over 65’s Festival- Aberdeen FC Community Trust

Garioch Goes for Gold at First Over 65’s Festival- Aberdeen FC Community Trust

The very first ‘Garioch Games’ took place in Aberdeenshire earlier this month from the 5th-7th July. Inspired by the Aberdeen City’s extremely popular ‘Golden Games’, the Garioch Games is a FREE sport and activities festival for people aged 65 and over, delivered by the Aberdeen FC Community Trust in partnership with Garioch Sports Centre, Inverurie Loco Works FC, Paths for All, Dementia Friends and Aberdeenshire Health & Social Care Partnership.

The Garioch Games aims to support over 65’s to become more active and encourage positive health and well-being among participants through fun physical and social activities. A number of events took place at the Garioch Sports Centre and Harlaw Park (Inverurie Locos), and few others at surrounding Garioch areas including Kemnay and Kintore.

Activities ranged from Health Walks in Kintore, Kemnay and Inverurie to Badminton, Spinning Bikes and Walking Football. Aberdeen FC Community Trust also delivered a ‘Care Home Pentathlon’ at the Garioch Sports Centre that seen residents from the Garioch (Inverurie), Overdon (Kintore) and Grove (Kemnay) Care Homes take part in 5 different physical activities plus a social event.

The Garioch Care Home activity co-ordinator said: ‘The residents really enjoyed themselves and we have some others that wish to come along next time after seeing the photographs. It was well organised and delivered, hats off to Nicola she was excellent. We had some great feedback from the residents families after their relatives have done nothing but talk about it. It’s great to see that more activities are taking place in the shire and we would be up for anything that you guys have to offer.’

To round off the Garioch Games, a social event was held at Harlaw Park on Friday Afternoon to celebrate the end of the Games, participants from the Garioch Games were treated to an awards ceremony, food buffet kindly donated by Tesco Inverurie, Music and Dancing. Each participant received a certificate of achievement for taking part in the Garioch Games.

Overall, The ‘Garioch Games’ proved to be very successful with 15 activities and 90+ over 65’s taking part over the three days. Participants ranged from 65-90+ years old and due to the positive feedback from a number of participants, the Garioch Partnership will be looking to increase the amount of sports activities available to Over 65’s.

Stephen Boddie, Aberdeen FC Trust Community Coach (Inverurie) mentioned: ‘The first Garioch Games in Aberdeenshire was fantastic, it was great to see so many people over the age of 65 taking part over the three days. A personal highlight was seeing an 84 year old Gentleman play his first game of Badminton in over 50 years, it was brilliant to see him enjoying himself.

‘Also, a massive thank you to all our partners who made the Garioch Games possible, without everyone getting involved we would find it challenging to support as many people to get active and socialise in their community. After the success of the first Garioch Games, we will look to make next year even bigger and better. I would encourage as many organisations, sports clubs and charities who want to help elderly people in their community to get active, to get involved!!’

For further information on the Garioch Games or to get involved next year, please get in touch with Stephen Boddie from the Aberdeen FC Community Trust at stephen.boddie@afccommunitytrust.org or 07583595420.