Summer Reflections and Fall Beginnings

 
 
 
 

With the summer months quickly winding down and the 2022 Canadian National Disc Golf Championships just a few short weeks away, we wanted to take a few minutes to reflect on some successes and some areas for improvement moving forward. At the start of April this year, Disc Golf PEI elected practically an entirely new Board of Directors and we had a set of 6 areas of focus we wanted to take on in 2022. They were:

  1. Youth Development

  2. Women’s Development

  3. Disc Golf PEI Memberships

  4. Web & Social Media Presence

  5. Nationals Events

  6. Volunteers

Over the course of the last five months since we set those goals out for ourselves we have achieved a lot in relation to them. We have:

  • Taught disc golf to 500+ kids, students, and women all across PEI. These ranged from Come Try events held in partnership with go!West PEI and go!East PEI as well as several School Clinics including ones at Colonel Gray High, Ellerslie Elementary, and O’Leary Elementary.

  • Had two of our Directors, Julia Campbell and Tannis Wood, host a weekly Women’s Fun Series League this summer out at Chuck IT. Not to mention the fact that they ran the PDGA Women’s Global Event here in PEI on August 6th with a great turnout! They already have plans for ways to make it even bigger and better next year!

  • Created our first rendition of a Disc Golf PEI Membership in partnership with Lone Oak Brewing Co. and had a sellout Tag Season Opening Event at the brand new Glenaladale Disc Golf Course!

  • Grown our Social Media presence considerably, reaching over 14,000 people over the last six months! Launched Disc Golf PEI’s first ever website!

  • Undertaken the Tournament Directing responsibility for the Nationals Flex Starts, hosting a player social event at PEI Brewing Co., and running a clinic with Canadian legend Thomas Gilbert.

  • Led Volunteer Days where several dozen volunteers have come out to help clean courses in preparation for tournaments, install signs and baskets at Glenaladale, and so much more!

However, our journey this year has not all been a success. We had several failed initiatives such as the Disc Drive where we sought to collect unused discs for use in DG PEI clinics across PEI. Or the Summer Shot of the Week that was planned to make a reappearance this year from 2021, but never saw the light of day. We also missed the opportunity to host more youth clinics with day camps throughout the summer as a result of a lack of resources and planning.

All of that said, the title of this post is Summer Reflections & Fall Beginnings. The latter part is meant to be a sign, not just to the Disc Golf community, but also to us as a Board of Directors, that with a new season upon us, we have the opportunity to start anew. This Fall will see us hosting clinics in more schools and hopefully with the resources to begin leaving a handful of baskets and discs at each place we visit. There is also the chance for a Fall/Winter Putting League that could see a resurgence of a Shot of the Week in a different format.

There is plenty in the works for Disc Golf in PEI and the future is bright! Stay tuned for more updates and check out the Schedule for the latest events in PEI!

Rafe Hambly