Surat Ultimate Open 2015- PROJECT (Creativity/Activity/Service)
This activity was my CAS Project. Surat Ultimate Open, basically, is an annual Ultimate Frisbee tournament hosted by Surat Ultimate. SUO 2015 was one of its kind as it was organised by two 16-year-olds (Khushi and me), along with the help of a few adults. There were about 28 Open teams and 10 Women teams, who competed for the title of SUO Winners and SUO Spirit Winners. This motive of this tournament was to encourage more cities to participate and hence, we had 3 different slabs for registration fee so that every player, fortunate or not, can participate and enjoy.
We designed the logo for the tournament and jersey for our team (Creativity), we also served the players who needed monetary help (Service) and we also played in Zero Gravity Women’s team (Activity).
I have been playing Ultimate for quite some time now, and the game itself along with team cooperation is my strength. My goal was to perform well as a player, both on and off the field. As a team, we aimed to win the tournament for which we practiced together on fitness and skills. However, on the day of the tournament, I broke my leg and couldn’t play. However, I did achieve and fulfill my goals by being motivating during practices. Moreover, on the organising part, my leadership quality is a plus. Hence, I used this to get field volunteers and explain them their job.
The whole activity was a challenge in itself, there were tough decisions to be made, strict deadlines to be met and many rejections to be content with. Juggling the planning of the event along with school work was a tough job, but we did come across strong when it was the day of the actual tournament. I think, personally, it was important for the both of us to take up this challenge and assess our abilities. The end result was satisfactory and all the players had fun.
This project was a collaborative work with immense planning for almost 4 months. Vardan sir, Hardik sir, and Pratik sir were our adult mentors and they helped us with the whole process. The plus to this was that we all had different kinds of experiences and expertise, which helped us in emergency situations. Each and everybody’s dominant skill was used to its fullest to reap the most benefits. We also had a crisis situation during the tournament day, but because of Hardik sir and Vardan sir, we got out of it and everything was sorted. A few players were also quite unhappy with the stay and the facilities, but we couldn’t have done anymore, so they decided to stay on their own. Khushi and I were pretty moved, but then our mentors handled the situation and we were alright the next day.
For me, fitness and sports is a must in every human’s life, especially children. And in this nation, a lot of them suffer because of the lack of opportunities. They are stolen from a lot of players to be because they don’t have enough money to pay for it. In this SUO we wanted to give an opportunity to everybody and anybody. We worked hard towards getting things in a budget and asking players, who were capable enough, to pay and partially subsidise the less fortunate players.
Moreover, the ethical aspect was always there. The way we used the funds/money, the way in which we directed and guided our fellow volunteers and the extent of fairness and equality we showed for every player/team. During the planning, we were questioned about our high fee prices, but it was our responsibility to justify our reason because people are spending their money to play. These were the major things we had to keep in mind and I think, we did a pretty decent job in doing the ‘right things’.
All in all, it was a great experience, with a lot of learnings. There were many problems too, but looking at the big picture, for me, it was a big success.
