Hosted an sports event, Karuizawa Sports Festival

We would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your continued support.

As part of our CSR activities, we held the "Karuizawa Sports Festival" for two days on July 20 and 21, 2024.

As an activity of the "Karuizawa Child Future Fund" established jointly with the Sports Community Karuizawa Club, a non-profit organization, in 2022, our company was also involved in sponsoring and managing the event.

The event was planned to realize the Karuizawa Child Future Fund's philosophy of "providing opportunities for all children to experience sports, culture, and the arts," and aimed to increase opportunities for all children to experience sports and culture, regardless of their family circumstances, and to eliminate the experience gap.

A total of more than 20 guest lecturers teaching sports, including Mr. Daisuke Matsuzaka, former professional baseball player and Major League Baseball player, and Ms. Homare Sawa, former Nadeshiko Japan soccer player, participated in the event, interacting with approximately 300 elementary and junior high school students from Karuizawa.

On the first day, the guests were divided into two groups and visited a children's nursing home in the town, where they interacted with the children through sports. The children were a little embarrassed to see the athletes for the first time, but the guest lecturers gradually encouraged them to get to know each other, and they enjoyed sweating and having fun. Some of the children had so much power that they tore their baseball gloves off, which surprised Mr. Hisanori Takahashi and Mr. Yoshio Itoi, who also participated in the event.

For children who were not so fond of sports, the guest lecturers devised impromptu target shooting games using a ball, which were enjoyed by all.

On the second day, in addition to sports classes in baseball, soccer, wrestling, golf, and curling, cultural and art classes in shogi, photography, and art were held.

The venue for the event, Kazakoshi Park, is a comprehensive park that was also used as a curling venue for the 1998 Nagano Olympics, and we were given the luxury of using its large grounds.

At the opening ceremony, Mr. Ryota Imanari, the guest instructor of the baseball class, performed preparatory exercises, and the children spontaneously and energetically shouted "5, 6, 7, 8" as Mr. Imanari called out "1, 2, 3, 4" to the audience.

The children in each classroom spent a meaningful time receiving direct instruction from guest lecturers, who were active and former top athletes they admire and who are usually not available for instruction.

During the baseball lesson, Mr. Matsuzaka watched over the children as they played catch and advised them to "Put yourself in the other players shoes and throw." Mr. Imanari gently encouraged the children who cried in frustration when they failed to handle the ball.

In the soccer class, activities were divided into beginners and experienced players. In the mini-game, children who played well high-fived the guest lecturers, and the event was exciting all the way through.

During the children's Q&A session, Mr. Keisuke Tsuboi answered the question, "How can I practice to become faster?" Mr. Tsuboi demonstrated that it is good to run with your elbows pulled back, and the children shouted "Oh, wow!" The children shouted with surprise, "This is how the Japanese national team runs!"

In the golf class, Mr. Yusaku Miyazato, Mr. Naoto Nakanishi, and others showed off their powerful driver shots in the snag golf, and the children in the photography class were aiming their cameras to capture the moment. Some of the photos in this article were taken by children.

In the wrestling class, the children, who were meeting Olympic gold medalists Ms. Eri Tosaka and Ms. Sara Dosho for the first time, were nervous and expectant while the two ladies kindly and carefully taught them the techniques. The children watched each movement seriously and challenged themselves to see if they could do the same. During the practice of tackling one person at a time, the children were hit so hard that Ms. Tosaka said, "Nice tackle! Excellent." she called out to them.

In a curling class unique to Karuizawa, active player Mr. Tsuyoshi Yamaguchi and members of the SC Karuizawa Club took part, and most of the children tried curling for the first time. They started by getting used to the ice, practiced slipping and falling with their bodies and finally enjoyed a mini-game.

In the culture and art class, a shogi class was held with Mr. Akira Watanabe and Mr. Makoto Tobe as guest lecturers. They played multi-sided shogi against elementary and junior high school students, and even the professionals were surprised by the moves they made, with the pro even saying, "Oh my God ("Maittana" in Japanese)" as they pondered.

In the art class, Mr. Chihiro Morita conducted an art and live painting class.

On a pure white 3m x 3m campus, the participating children painted patterns on the theme of "the human body" using paints. They used their fingertips, palms, soles, and other parts of their bodies to color, and by the end of the class, paint was on their faces, clothes, and everywhere else, showing how much they enjoyed the class.

By the end of the session, all the guest lecturers had completed the artwork with a brush stroke! This artwork is now prominently displayed on the wall of our office in Singapore.

After each class, an athletic event was held for all participants, where the children were divided into four teams to compete in a ball tossing contest. The guest lecturers held a large hand-shaped "jama-jama stick（block stick)" to obstruct the ball tossing, but the children kept throwing the ball into the basket, and their parents cheered them on.

At the end of the event, the guest lecturers took a commemorative photo with all the participants, gave high-fives to the children, and left the venue.

The children who participated in the event commented, "It was like a dream come true," "I want to practice more and get better," and "I want to be able to play well in the games". The guest lecturers also commented, "We were more entertained than the children!", "Happy to see the smiles on the children's faces"

The two days, blessed with good weather, were an invaluable time for the children and the best summer holiday memories. We hope, too, that this experience will be a spark for something, such as dreams and hopes for the future.

We are happy to have been able to organize this very meaningful event for the children, thanks to the cooperation of many organizations. Our company will continue to actively promote activities with the aim of developing children's 'zest for life' and to bring smiles to the faces of all children in Karuizawa.

■ Karuizawa Sports Festival

This event was planned to provide children with opportunities for social participation and sports experience, and to contribute to the development of local sports culture.

The timing of the event was chosen to coincide with the heightened sports fever prior to the Paris Olympics, and to be held in Karuizawa, which celebrated its 100th anniversary last year.

■ Sports Community Karuizawa Club N.P.O., Karuizawa Child Future Fund

The concept of the Karuizawa Child Future Fund, operated by SC Karuizawa Club, is to provide all children in Karuizawa with opportunities to experience sports and cultural arts, to nurture their healthy minds and bodies, and to develop their "zest for life".

By providing opportunities to experience sports and cultural activities, we work to eliminate the experience gap between children and provide them with many choices.

For inquiries about this event

OBI HOLDINGS PR team (Representative: Sameshima)

---