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On 12 October 2011 County Hall was brought to a standstill as Essex County Council’s Sportessex Team, took things into their own hands as they launched the nationwide SportMakers scheme in Essex, by ‘flashmobbing’ County Hall.

As the clock struck midday Essex based dance instructor Charlene Teft, made her way into County Hall. With a flick of the switch music blared out and Charlene started dancing. Just one or two employees got up at first, but then quickly more and more employees joined in the aerobic dance moves or tapped their feet along to the Pussycat Dolls ‘Jai hoe’ soundtrack. Other Council employees and local residents looked on in amazement as the excitement mounted and the dancing crowd grew to take over the whole foyer. The whole routine culminated in the SportMakers banner dropping from the balcony of County Hall.

To view the Essex County Council, Sportessex FlashMob video log on You Tube

Cllr Stephen Castle, Essex County Council Cabinet Member for Education and the 2012 Games commented, ‘What an inspiring way to launch SportMakers here in Essex! SportMakers is a fantastic scheme which will encourage more people across the county to get involved in sport. Today’s launch will hopefully highlight how anyone can be inspired by the London 2012 Games and that anyone can be a SportMaker, simply by encouraging others to get involved in sport. I urge the people of Essex to find out more and join in’.

Sport Makers is part of the Places People Play legacy programme that is bringing the Olympic and Paralympic Games into communities across the country. It aims to inspire 1400 people across the county to get involved in sport, with each of them simply spending 10 hours of your time organising or leading sporting activities in their community or workplace.

Every Sport Maker will be have the opportunity to come to an informal and interactive workshop where they’ll gain the skills to encourage others to get involved in sport. Sport Makers will also be invited to work with organisations that need their help, and join forces with other Sport Makers who want to make sport happen locally. There’ll also be opportunities for Sport Makers to meet top athletes and plenty of other incentives to stay involved.

The Sport Maker launch also welcomed five-time Olympic Gold medalist, Sir Steve Redgrave, who joined forces with Sport England and Sportessex to launch Sport Makers across the county, he commented ‘You don’t need medals to become a sporting hero. By helping people you know to get involved in sport you’ll be doing something amazing for your friends and local community as well as having fun yourself’.

To find out more about becoming a SportMaker visit www.sportmakers.co.uk  or to see what sport you can get involved in across the county visit www.sportessex.com 

Find out more about the Essex Sporting Legacy>>