Bocce – unusual game for special people
November 6 -7, 2015. Almaty Management University (earlier IAB) and PF “Special Olympics Kazakhstan” conducted Republican Championship on unique Italian game bocce** among children and young people with mental disorders.
The “bocce” balls game has oldest history, firstly mentioned about 2-3 thousand years BC. Bocce is an ancestor of bowling (bowling alley), pitanga, curling and the number of others. Students-volunteers of AlmaU, who organized the tournament, chose exactly this game for the competition, since bocce is considered to be one of the most interesting types of sports adapted for disabled people.
Students not only trained themselves before the championship, but also conducted preparatory trainings with disabled children, performed with them in mixed teams and also organized cultural-entertainment programme for participants. The strong impression was made by the dance flashmob, which was prepared by 23 volunteers (1st year students “Marketing” and “Finance” courses) specially for their wards. Students firstly danced themselves and then invited participants of the game to the center of the hall and showed them movements which they had to repeat.
Also athletes-winners and prizewinners of the World Summer Special Olympic Games in Los-Angeles (The USA, 2015) from such cities as Almaty, Taldykorgan, Aktau, Kostanay participated in the tournament.
According to the results of the championship, guys from Kostanay (among teams of the older division – from 20 years and older) and Aktau (among teams of the younger division – until 20 years) became the best. Among mixed teams the first place was taken by the team of the younger division “Unifight”, which apart from disabled children had 2 students of AlmaU. All the winners were awarded with the valuable prizes and diplomas.
_____________________________________________________________________________
Bocce Championship is one of the stages of AlmaU’s social projects on “Service Learning” discipline. Service Learning is the new discipline, introduced by AlmaU from 2015, within which students are taught to serve the society and apply their knowledge to practice, working in nursing homes, homes for disabled people and other social organizations. Students must also prepare and implement their own social projects. Introduction of this course complies with the University’s policy, directed to preparation of qualified specialists of the sphere of business, deeply realizing their civic responsibility in front of society.
