Located in the heart of the NSW Hilltops Region, the town of Young is famous for its cherries, golden wheat fields and heritage buildings. Blooms The Chemist partnered with our brand ambassador Steve Waugh and his son Austin to bring Steve’s tailored Cricket Clinics to the town of Young.
“It’s about letting them have fun and develop their skills, bringing more opportunities to learn from other cricketers. It’s really great to see so many girls here for the clinic. Women’s cricket has just taken off and people like Alyssa Healy and Ellyse Perry are great role models for all kids. They’re as good as anyone in Australian sport,” Steve says. “There’s a lot more support for women’s cricket now and today a few of the girls showed real potential to play at a higher level.”
Kelly Meddings, Secretary and Treasurer of Cricket NSW and Young resident, is a passionate advocate of cricket in the community, seeing first-hand how sport can have a positive impact on kids.
“We’re seeing a lot more girls picking up a bat and the mix is really diverse. Some of the girls have played really high-level rep cricket and some have put cricket pads on for the first time this year. It’s great to see so many girls wanting to break that mould of traditional sports that they play,” says Kelly.
Thomas Mok, Pharmacist-owner of Blooms The Chemist Young, has been sponsoring local sporting teams for over three years, making it possible for kids to get involved in the game regardless of what’s going on at home.
“Having Thomas’ support has enabled us to provide cricket equipment for team members; it’s an expensive sport to get into to buy all that equipment so it’s allowed us to have kits available to give kids a sense of belonging, not only to the game but the team as well,” Kelly says.
“That can be really important to kids in our community. Everyone knows the drought is affecting us but they may not understand how that translates into the business community. When the agriculture sector is hurting, the whole town is hurting because it impacts in so many ways.
“For kids who live on farms where sheep and cattle are dying every day… it’s not a fun environment for anyone to be in and sport is a way to completely get away from that and focus on something else. It’s really important for mateship and to have other leaders and people influencing their lives.”