Fancy Dress Hockey Tournament
21-year-old student Chloe, combined her love for hockey and her sister by organising a charity hockey tournament with Loughborough Women's Students Hockey Club to raise funds for Naomi House & Jacksplace. Read more of Chloe's story below.
I decided to put together a charity tournament at Loughborough for many reasons. Firstly, my family is a part of Jacksplace. My beautiful older sister, Charlotte, stays at Jacksplace regularly as she adores going there and taking part in all of the amazing activities and events they have to offer. Charlotte has Lennox Gastaut Syndrome, which is a rare form of epilepsy. Having such an incredible team to come to for respite is perfect for Charlotte and it also helps out our family to have a nice break. We love Charlotte to absolute pieces but she loves going to Jacksplace. They go far and beyond to make Charlotte's time special there, my family can't put into words how incredible we think everyone at Jacksplace are! This is the main reason as to why I wanted to put together a charity event; to raise money for Jacksplace. They're just phenomenal and I wanted to try and give something back, with the help of all my friends and family.
The second reason why I wanted to hold this event is because it has been an awful year and there has been very limited social events. I knew running this event would face a lot of challenges in terms on Covid-19, but I knew that bringing all of these people together, safely, for some hockey would do the world of good for everyone.
The event took place in June 2021 and it was a one day hockey tournament. When I first spread the word about the event taking place, I mentioned it may be fun for teams to dress up. I didn't mention this again but much to my amazement, every single one of the eleven teams had a theme! It was so fun and it was heartwarming to see the effort put into the event by all that participated. The day that the event took place was very hot and sunny, which put an extra smile on everyone's faces.
Thank you for organising this event, it was just what we needed after such a long time of doing nothing. We had a class time and you have picked a class charity!
I was so amazed at the response to the event. All my friends and family and their friends and family showed their appreciation to Jacksplace in one way or another. So many people donated and helped with the event and I couldn't be more proud of them all. We managed to raise £815 just for a one day event. I can't thank everyone enough for helping, donating and participating in the event.
This event was very important to me and I feel very emotional knowing that with everyone's help, we managed to raise this amount of money for an incredible charity. My family have been coming to Jacksplace for just a couple of years, but we are ever so thankful to have found it. Like I've said previously, my family and I can't put into words what they mean to us, and how much work they do to give others happiness.
The charity was a lot of hard work to organise on my own, but I was so relieved with how well it went. I couldn't have done it without everyone who participated and donated. I could really feel the sense that every single person donated with their heart, even if they didn't know me, my family or Jacksplace. Everyone at the event on the day really understands how amazing this charity is.
The hockey tournament was such a laugh, it was so good see everyone loving it and I'm so happy how much money was raised. I'm glad we could do our bit to help your sister and the charity
