“Remember the 5 D's of
dodgeball: Dodge, Duck, Dip, Dive and Dodge” said Patches O’Houlihan once upon
a time. And on Thursday 23rd February that is exactly what a group
of dodgeball enthusiasts from Macquarie Bank did as they took part in the
inaugural Macquarie Dodgeball Tournament in aid of ReachOut!
As Storm Doris raged outside the
players arrived at Haggerston School, who had
kindly offered to host the fundraising event. Spirits were
high, team talk was rife and everyone had their hopes pinned on being named the Macquarie Dodgeball Champions 2017 by the end of the
night.
After being selected by the Macquarie
Graduate Network as their charity partner of the year in September, ReachOut
worked with the graduate representatives, Dmytro and Gamu, to organise a fun,
inclusive and energetic night that would engage employees from all over the bank.
The dodgeball idea was a winner and nearly 50 employees turned up on the night
to make their bid for the dodgeball title!
The graduate team were keen to ensure the tournament was open
to everyone and enforced a penalty for any team which was not gender
balanced. The result was a 60/40 mix and
the girls got just as stuck into the competition as the boys!
The group stages got under way with the
ReachOut Mentors facing Underdodge, the Artful Dodgers taking on the Snoop
Dodgy Dodgers, RegOps Rangers battling Team Ignite and the ReachOut staff
competing with the Jammy Dodgers (there should have been a prize for the best
team name in hindsight!).
It was a hotly contested competition, with some spectacular dodging,
cries of despair at being caught out and cheers of triumph at every win. After
moving through the group stages and semi-finals it was the Jammy Dodgers and
Team Ignite who finally made it to the all-important final but who
would be crowned champion?! After
another 10 minutes of ducking, dipping, diving and dodging the Jammy Dodgers
were triumphant and were awarded the Macquarie Dodgeball Champions 2017
trophy!! Congratulations to everyone on
their team!
It was a fantastically fun evening, with everyone at Macquarie showing great
sportsmanship and enthusiasm. Over £400
was raised on the night which will be matched by the Macquarie Foundation so
the final amount raised for ReachOut will be over £800!
On behalf of ReachOut, I’d like to
say a huge thank you to everyone who took part and a special thank you to
Dmytro Goncharov, Gamu Chikwanda and James Lovelace for organising, recruiting and
running the tournament!
