Alison on board to keep Olympic spirit alive in Shropshire
Shropshire’s Olympic archer Alison Williamson has been recruited to head up a campaign which has the target of keeping the Olympic spirit alive in the county.
Alison, who grew up in Church Stretton and is Britain's leading archer and a veteran of six Olympic Games, is working with County Sports Partnership Energize Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin.
She will be visiting schools, community and youth groups over the next few months to inspire young people to ‘follow their dream’.
Chris Child, chief executive of Energize, which aims to enable sport and physical activity to be a part of everyone’s life in the county, said that he was delighted to have Alison on board.
“We could not have a better role model for young people. Alison is not only an Olympic medalist but she is the country’s best-known archer and was brought up in Shropshire,” he said.
“The idea behind London 2012 was to ‘inspire a generation’ and this is what our new campaign sets out to do - we want to keep the Olympic and Paralympic momentum going.”
He said that Alison was now available for half-day visits to schools and groups and would be motivating young people, not only to become more healthy and active, but also to follow their dreams, whether it be in sport or another career area.
She will also be promoting three Energize initiatives - the School Games Programme which is increasing opportunities to take part in competitive sport in schools across the area; Sportivate which is an informal sports programme designed to help 14-25 year olds become more active and the ‘Sports Maker’ programme which encourages people to organise informal sports with friends or family on a voluntary basis.
Alison commented: “I am very excited to be working with Energize to promote this campaign in schools and the local community. We hope we can inspire the next generation to get involved in sport and help to fulfill the dreams of young people.”
