The First Step in the Rackets Up Social Responsibility Project has taken place in Corum
Hitit, one of the top 5 PSS providers in the world, commenced its corporate social responsibility project named Rackets Up. The project in Corum has been developed with the support of The Turkish Table Tennis Federation. Rackets Up aims to introduce children aged between 6 and 15 years of age to table tennis, to support their life skills through sports and instilling in them a routine of doing sports. The project has started in Turkey with long term plans to reach a global scale. In Corum, during the first year, the Rackets Up project is expected to reach 11,000 children.
Hitit, one of the leading airline and travel IT companies in the world, launched its corporate social responsibility project, called Rackets Up, in Corum.
The “Rackets Up” project, which was developed with The Turkish Table Tennis Federation aims to introduce young children to table tennis and instill in them a habit of sports and pursuing a healthy lifestyle.
Under the scope of Rackets Up, table tennis equipment was supplied to 55 schools in Corum. Over the next year the project will provide training from The Turkish Table Tennis Federation. The 1,500 instructors taking the course will be certified to teach the 11,000 children. It is anticipated that through this project future athletes will represent our country in table tennis. It is a sport that can benefit all children as it supports both intellectual and physical development in children.
The launch of the project took place in Corum on Tuesday, September 11, 2018. Attended by AKP Corum Deputy, Erol Kavuncu; CHP Corum Deputy, Tufan Köse; CHP İzmir Deputy, Bedri Sertel; Corum Mayor, Zeki Gül; Deputy Mayor, Turhan Candan; Hitit CFO, Sezer Ozmutlu; President of The Turkish Table Tennis Federation, Kerim Koc; Provincial Deputy Director of Ministry of National Education, Huseyin Kir; Provincial Acting Director of Ministry of Youth and Sports, Erdogan Sahinci; project stakeholders and children from schools participating in the project, the festival attracted considerable attention from the residents of the province as well.
Exhibition matches from the National Table Tennis Team players drew great interest during the festival, which ended with a tournament between the participating teams and an awards ceremony.
11,000 children will benefit from the project in Corum
Hitit CFO, Sezer Ozmutlu said: “Since Hitit was founded, in all our activities we have attached great value to people, the environment and our common future. Pursuant to our social responsibility goals, we continue to create projects that bring real benefits to communities. In this regard, the “Rackets Up” project, which we initiated with The Turkish Table Tennis Federation, aims to introduce young children to table tennis and to instill in them a habit of doing sports regularly and pursuing a healthy lifestyle. We want table tennis to be recognized across Turkey as a sport, and for it to become more popular, as well as encouraging it to become a part of the daily lives of children, supporting a healthy lifestyle. It is envisioned that “Rackets Up” will be introduced to various provinces in Turkey, starting with Corum, and then extended globally. We also anticipate creating a talent pool where successful athletes will represent Turkey both in national and international table tennis tournaments”.
Highlighting the importance of the project the President of The Turkish Table Tennis Federation, Kerim Koc said, “We believe the Rackets Up project, which we have started in Corum, will be a model for all sports. Our objective is to popularize Table Tennis in Turkey and this project has the vision, mission, continuity and solid, measurable results to achieve this goal.” Highlighting that the project will comprise of multiple phases, Koc said, “This project, which we started with Hitit in Corum, is a corporate social responsibility project that will extend across Turkey, it introduces students to table tennis and truly achieves its purpose with regard to performance and education”.