Single Parents Active Kids has had an amazing 4 years!
The good news is we are sure the next 4 will be even better! Thank you for helping us celebrate this momentous occasion recently, and thank you to one and all for making our organisation what it is today!
I’m hoping you enjoy a little insight into how we started, how we are going and perhaps a look at what the future holds for Single Parents Active Kids.
START
A few of us members were part of another group, and for various reasons the group seemed to take a very different direction. We had a small but active bunch of us keen to keep the friendship and momentum happening. We were running quite a few events per month and we were starting to believe that we could actually really make this happen and grow. On the 25th of April, 2008 we called a meeting about the possibility of starting our own group and giving more single parents and their kids the opportunity to join up and make our group huge. It was time to propose to those attending what we could do, there was a bit of negativity with thoughts of how we can take on 2 established groups with no resources, no money, no real experience. Well I was (and still am!) very passionate in my beliefs that we could make something extraordinary happen, luckily there were others there also that believed it was possible. The vote was positive to proceed, so we had another meeting and spoke to our sister group in Sydney and got a few tips from them. Ironically, they called me over a year after asking for tips from us about how quickly we had grown!
And on July 1, 2008, Single Parents Active Kids was born!
PRESENT
I will give you some statistics that will hopefully blow you away and give you some idea of why we are where we are today:
- 14 Family Fun Day’s that have attracted more than 3000 attendants!
- Well over 1000 events.
- Over 40 Camps/Holidays.
- Over $90,000 saved since 2011 to the present.
- Beach Volleyball premierships.
- Indoor Cricket Premiership.
- Over 150 Bargain Special and Special Events.
- Including kids, over 650 in our membership data base at present, and growing!
- A healthy bank account which allows us to purchase events on our member’s behalf, to give them more time to pay, hence making life easier for them.
- We have a 7 person Committee + 4 helping out in other very helpful areas.
What the above statistics don’t show is what we have done in the last little period: You-tube, new website, Meet-up, Facebook page, Twitter, as well as appeased our governing body with facts and figures required by them. We have reached this stage through lots of passion, enthusiasm, a very steely resolve to have a huge positive impact, and believing not only in our own abilities but those of others. Life-long friends have been made left, right and centre, if you were an outsider and came to an event like Thursday night at Rock of Ages, you would have thought we had all known each other for 20 years, such was the nature of the conversations and comfort zone of the whole night, same could be said about the recent Cocktail night and so many more events.
FUTURE
I think the last couple of months has been a great insight into the future of Single Parents Active Kids. Our website and the positive content on there, as well as the regular updates has been a huge improvement/success already. Social Media is huge and we are moving with it, Twitter, Facebook, Meetup are all a part of that future. We have 5 parents about to go to Bali, and about 20 of us already booked in for Thailand. Gold Coast 2013 will definitely go ahead, as well as Phillip Island, Anglesea and Houseboat weekend. We are already looking at different ways of letting more single parents out there know about this amazing group, and we will stop at nothing to give more the opportunity to become a part of our organisation.
SUMMARY
Who would have thought… 4 years! To say it has been an amazing ride is to underplay the significance this group has had on so many single parents and their kids lives. We are certainly a lot stronger in so many ways today then ever before, we are a lot more professional, we are still as passionate as at that meeting on the 25th of April, 2008, to have that positive impact on single parents and their kids lives.
