Cobh YMCA Participate In World Challenge ‘Hoop Springs Eternal’

Beautiful weather conditions allowed the Cobh YMCA and the people of Cobh to take part in the YMCA ‘Hoop Springs Eternal’ World Challenge last Saturday by hosting a street basketball shoot outside of their  premises on West Beach. This YMCA World Challenge was a coordinated activity organized with the aim of mobilizing  millions of people during a big celebration of the worldwide work of the YMCA to empower young people through it’s change model of  SPACE, TRANFORMATION and IMPACT.

The event took place in thousands of local communities across five continents and included a global basketball shoot out which started at 8h00, local time in New Zealand, and ended in Hawaii at 00h00 following the time zone progression. Various communities and cultures were connected by live broadcasting and other forms of social media during the day. In Japan there was a water based basketball game and in India, basketballs were replaced with watermelons going through the hoops!

In Cobh nearly 200 people shot for the basket. Locals from aged 3 up to 73 took part, plus visitors from France, Austria and Germany, reflecting the many faces of Cobh. The waiting game now begins however, as the final numbers from the global events are calculated in the World Alliance headquarters in Geneva. Initial indications are that a record number of people participated but it will be a couple of weeks yet before the final numbers are in and the Guinness World record can be confirmed.

General Secretary of Cobh YMCA,James Bilson, thanked all those present and said  “It was a fantastic event, energetic buzz and great to see Communities pulling together and showing that getting involved can be fun and worthwhile. The children and families element was very visible”.

With the YMCA centre open for refreshments people were able to see how similar events around the world were unfolding via the interactive live photo map and the music playlist. YMCA also thanked the local businesses who sponsored and supported the event, namely Lidl (Cobh), BMC, Murphy’s Centra, Aunty Nellies sweet shop, Keen House Keen on Sport, Garvey’s  Supervalu, For Goodness Cakes, Cobh Town Council and the Irish Red Cross (Cobh Branch).

Deputy National Secretary for the YMCA Ivan McMahon was in Cobh for the event along with Ted Creedon from The Irish Red Cross who represented the Guinness Book of Records and acted as an adjudicator for the procedings.