Last weekend we sent a team to our first ever Zone Cup in Vietnam. We were invited by Zone Ultimate, who have been our uniform sponsors for the past two years.
It was a great tournament, and we really encourage you to get along to it next time it’s on. As well as having a really fun time, making some new friends, and sweating enough to fill a small swimming pool, we were fortunate enough to win the tournament.
Thanks to Zone Ultimate, our prize for winning the tournament was $3000 USD (about $3750 AUD). This is the second time we have won prize money at a tournament (the first being US Open 2015), and back then, as a club, we made the decision that if we ever won prize money we would give at least half of it away.
Whilst there are thousands of worthy organisations that we could support, we have decided to donate the money to groups that share a similar mission to us:
- promoting women’s ultimate in Australia and across the world
- promoting the Spirit of The Game
- promoting community building through ultimate
In 2015 we supported Ultimate Peace, who continue to do incredible things with young people throughout the Middle East.
This year however, we have decided to follow Ultimate Australia‘s lead and support the work of the Indigenous Ultimate Association (IUA).
Indigenous Ultimate Association
The IUA has been promoting ultimate to Indigenous people and communities since 2010, and Ellipsis founders Matt Hill and Cat Phillips have both been involved in running coaching clinics at IUA events.
They are aiming to raise $10,000 each year, which will go towards supporting a number of activities including:
- sending coaches to teach ultimate to Indigenous communities
- providing equipment (e.g. discs) to Indigenous communities
- administrative support for social or competitive ultimate in or between Indigenous communities
- developing coaching and administrative capabilities within Indigenous communities
The IUA also have a strong emphasis on developing youth leadership and striving for gender equity, particularly encouraging girls to participate in and lead sporting activities. They will be applying these strategies to all of their Indigenous programs.
They’re a great organisation, and it was an easy decision for us to donate $2000 of our prize money to the current IUA Development Program.
We urge you to support the work they are doing by contacting your club and encouraging them to make a contribution.