The ASSI ApS non-profit organisation with the support of Fondazione De Rigo H.E.ART Onlus presents this year’s edition of “Integrally Sport and Culture”

Belluno, 21 December 2021 - Sports create culture and make it easy to knock down barriers and distances, emotionally uniting people. ASSI ApS Onlus considers this its true mission, a commitment that is renewed in “Integrally Sports and Culture - 2021/2022 Edition”, a project supported by Fondazione De Rigo H.E.ART Onlus.

After last year’s forced break due to the pandemic, the initiative established to educate kids in junior and senior secondary schools in the Belluno area about disabilities can finally get going again. This year the educational project sees the participation of  19 schools with a total of about 1850 students, including 123 with disabilities, in addition to sports institutions, instructors with degrees in physical education, technicians and workers in a variety of different professions.

“Integrally Sports and Culture” offers information and education about disabilities and an incentive to practice Paralympic sports in the schools involved. The teenagers will in fact be offered the chance to learn about and practice a number of Paralympic sports disciplines, such as: boccia, table football, basketball, wheelchair rugby, tennis, table tennis, orienteering/trail-O, archery, sitting volleyball, baskin, and integrated football.

The logo of the 2021/2022 edition was created by a student from Belluno’s Catullo School of Art, Cecilia Boschetti.

Paralympic athletes will participate alongside qualified representatives of sporting organisations, offering testimony of their experience as an encouragement and example for the kids. ‘Sports personalities’ who have succeeded without letting the hardships of life get the better of them. Individuals who have had the courage to fight to achieve their dreams and who are committed, on a day-to-day basis, to personally demonstrating how the disability is not a limitation, that there are no obstacles to the desire to live life to the full, and that nothing is impossible if you set your mind to it.

The project will conclude on 10 May 2022. Compatibly with the evolution of the pandemic, a special event focusing on Paralympic sports will be held in the Spes Arena sports centre, followed by the presentation of awards to participating students.

Over the course of the day, prize money will also be awarded to the classes/students who have produced the best ‘good practices’ to be considered by and made available to users in the region.

‘Integrally Sport and Culture’ is part of a wider project that, this year, in addition to the participating schools and sports clubs, also benefits once again this year from the support of the Province of Belluno and collaborations with the following organisations: MIUR, Comune of Belluno, Giesse, Maja Dress, Lattebusche and Sport Assi.

Oscar De Pellegrin - ASSI ApS non-profit organisation President - added: “We are really happy that this initiative for young students can get going again, with Fondazione De Rigo H.E.ART at our side.  The De Rigo family's awareness of social issues and support for them encourages us and motivates us to implement new social projects”.

Barbara De Rigo - Fondazione De Rigo H.E.ART Onlus President - commented: “We’re enthusiastic about participating in the ASSI Non-profit Association’s project incarnating the criteria that inspire us and the goals we have set as Fondazione De Rigo – H.E.ART (Health, Education & Art for Youth), which are supporting the intellectual and physical development of children and teens and people’s self-expression through initiatives and projects eliminating potential barriers to their growth”.