On Tuesday 15 December, the entire Board members of the Decathlon Foundation met for the last Board meeting of 2020 (by video, due to the situation) to validate the projects presented by the Decathlon teammates
On the agenda of this year-end meeting, our French employees are in the spotlight: Lyon, Grasse, Strasbourg, Grenoble and Auxerre are the cities where our Decathlonians have decided to develop their projects.
To finish the day, our Mexican teammates presented for the first time a project allowing young children suffering from diseases and coming from sensitive areas to rediscover the pleasures and benefits of sport in Guadalajara.
Here is a look back at the projects supported by the Foundation during our board meeting:
Matthieu and Cyrielle, both teammates respectively of Decathlon Lyon Part Dieu and Bron, have set up a project based on cycling to help people who are far from employment but also far from practicing sport because of disabling pathologies
Matthieu, cycling enthusiast “Tandem cycling is a personal passion! It allows me to get away from it all, to enjoy the great outdoors, it is a great tool for cooperation and for rediscovering certain freedoms… I will be happy to share these sensations with as many people as possible! This project also makes sense to me because it will make tandem biking more accessible, which today is still too marginal because it is expensive in terms of equipment (tandem but also means of transport and storage) and human needs.
Cyrielle, cycling enthusiast “Les Ateliers de l’Audace is a project that I followed from the conception of the idea to its concrete realization. It is a project that is close to my heart because it responds to many values: human, ecological, economic… I am passionate about bicycles and I think that it is a perfect way of integrating people into the workforce, which also responds to many current problems.
Then it was Gwenaelle and her entire team from the Grasse Decathlon Store : Franck, Victor, Céline, Kenny, Michael, Magali and Clara, who got involved for the residents of the Arche in Grasse, an establishment that welcomes adults with mental disabilities.
Gwenaelle has set up a project around the construction of a multi-sports field within the Arche where the Decathlon Grasse teammates will regularly go to play sports with the beneficiaries.
The members of the Foundation’s board were won over by this project and the energy of the Decathlon Grasse teammates.
In Strasbourg, Laurence from the Decathlon Hautepierre store presented her project on the implementation of “La Maison de l’Education” for people with chronic diseases. The Decathlon Foundation supports the University of Strasbourg Foundation in collaboration with the Decathlon Hautepierre store for all aspects of the gym’s sports equipment.
Chronic diseases have a very important impact on the life of patients who have to adapt their daily life to the constraints imposed by the disease: nutrition, treatment, lifestyle, sports activities,…
Poor management of these constraints can aggravate the disease. For example, joint pain can lead to the abandonment of sports activities, which will cause excess weight, aggravating the joint problems and promoting metabolic problems that can lead to cardiovascular problems.
The aim of the Maison de l’Education project is to make sport accessible to people suffering from this pathology.
The afternoon started with a project around health sports between the Grenoble University Hospital and the 4 Decathlon Grenoble stores
Marie, Marjolaine, Yann, Jocelyne and Maylis decided to accompany health professionals and patients in physical and psychological recovery through sports in the Grenoble area.
The validation of the project will enable the Grenoble University Hospital to be equipped with rehabilitation equipment for people suffering from rheumatology and orthopaedics with degenerative arthritis, chronic lumbago or rheumatism.
The last French project of the day, the team from the Decathlon Auxerre store with Romain and Alexis, who are carrying out a project with the Ufolep of the Yonne and its coordinator Romain Lopes to enable young people from disadvantaged neighbourhoods to practice urban sports such as parkour.
Romain, a football enthusiast, “I was interested in this project first of all because of the human values it represents. The ideal image of sport, accessible to all on a field or in the street with the minimum necessary to share a physical activity whoever you are (boy or girl) from all cultures including environmental (urban or rural). All social and even physical levels because it represents a culture in its own right combining Spirit (art, music) and Body (physical activity).
According to my experience within Decathlon, we share the same values and want to promote sport that brings people together and is accessible to all so as to provide the necessary tools and means to be able to blossom and grow humanly and socially through sport (…) It is for all these motivations and certainties that Decathlon Auxerre is associated with UFO STREET 89. “It is to be able to share our common passion which is sport.
Finally, our world representatives for this board are our Mexican teammates: A female power duo formed by Alicia & Miriam, Decathlon Guadalajara.
“Our project aims to promote the benefits and pleasures of sport for young people and children with cancer. The association Le Nez Rouge, with whom we work, knows us well and is ready to accompany Decathlon employees who wish to organise sports activities for children. We met and discussed the fact that sports activities are essential for these young people.
The Decathlon Foundation supports Alicia and Miriam’s project 100% for the different activities they want to offer with their shop teammates: racquet sports, yoga, volleyball, basketball and also highlights on environmental awareness
It is with great emotion and joy that the Foundation’s board accompanies Mexico in its sports and solidarity initiatives: Congratulations again to the whole team Alicia, Miriam, Louise Eglantine and Edgar who coordinated this project.
The Decathlon 2020 Foundation is coming to an end with these 6 magnificent projects that feel good!
See you on 9 March for new sports and solidarity projects that will mark the beginning of 2021!
26 March 2021
