GEG Volunteer Team Joins Special Olympics Inclusive Sports Event; Promotes Inclusivity and Care for People with Disabilities

August 25, 2020 Galaxy Entertainment Group (“GEG”) is committed to making sports accessible to all people and throughout the years, GEG has actively supported different major sports events and community sports activities. Recently, the Macau Special Olympics (“MSO”) had invited the GEG Volunteer Team to join their students for the “2020 Macau Sports Day for the Disabled” that was hosted by the Sports Bureau of the Macau SAR Government, and included games and activities organized by MSO for the purposes of promoting sports, encouraging engagement with people with disabilities, and fostering mutual help and harmony.

Recently, the GEG Volunteer Team took part in a number of inclusive activities, including the inclusive boules and inclusive basketball events organized by MSO. During the event, MSO representatives took on the role as instructors and led the participants through a series of warm-up and posture improvement exercises. To enhance the interaction between GEG volunteers and MSO students, the participants were paired up for the exercise, which included ball passing, dribbling, and mini contests. Through the pair-up, the volunteers and students demonstrated true teamwork, companionship, and inclusion. Furthermore, GEG volunteers also assisted the MSO students in completing the different sports and games at the “2020 Macau Sports Day for the Disabled” that was held earlier to help students better integrate into the community.

Mr. Hetzer Siu, Chief Executive Officer of Special Olympics Macau said, “We wish to thank the GEG volunteers for their personal time and contribution in making this event a huge success. The GEG Volunteer Team has shown great enthusiasm in supporting our students, which is important as it allows the disabled community to feel the amount of love and care that society has for them. The pandemic has affected many social welfare services, but by working with the GEG Volunteer Team on arranging these inclusive activities, we were able to ease some of the tensions that parents and caregivers felt when coming up with ways to help keep their disabled members both physically and emotionally healthy.”

Mr. Pun Chi Wai, a GEG volunteer from Table Games department, who took part in the event said, “This was the first time that I came into contact with the boules sport, which I find very novel and interesting. It’s great to be able to take part in an inclusive activity with special needs students, and I find it very meaningful that we combine sports and volunteering as this allows us to enhance our mutual understanding, develop our physical health and wellbeing, and promote positivity.”

Throughout the years, GEG has been actively promoting equality in sports by helping special needs students discover their athletic interests and potential, as well as injecting positive energy into the community. Among its many contributions, GEG has collaborated with MSO on arranging many different types of sports activities and events for its students. Since 2011, GEG has title-sponsored the “Galaxy Entertainment Special Olympics Table Tennis Competition” for nine consecutive years; and in 2019, members from the GEG Dragon Boat Team and special needs athletes from the MSO Dragon Boat Team also got together and formed a “GEG x MSO Inclusive Dragon Boat Team” that competed in the “2019 Macau Special Olympics Unified Dragon Boat Festival Tournament” against other teams from cities within the Greater Bay Area. Moving forward, GEG will continue to actively promote a “sports for all” culture by making sports accessible for all people, and fulfill our corporate social responsibilities by helping to build Macau into a healthy and harmonious city.