Taking GB Team to compete in the Euro's in Italy

Who are we?

The UK Blind Baseball Association (UKBBA) was officially formed in January 2020 to proactively govern Blind Baseball in the UK and fundamentally support and guide visually impaired participants into the sport.

We are a non-profit organisation affiliated to the British Baseball Federation (BBF) who governs baseball in Britain including the running of the UK baseball national teams.

Blind Baseball was originated in Italy over 20 years ago by an ex-baseball player. Since then the game has gone global with the hope that eventually the game will be played at the Paralympics. Countries currently active include Italy, Cuba, USA, Germany, France and Pakistan with Japan and Argentina recently creating teams.

In 2018 the game was brought to the UK following a connection between Lancashire Lions Visually Impaired Sports Club and the Italian founders. Such was the interest the Lions started playing the game in the UK the following summer and in October 2019 represented the UK in the International Moles Cup tournament in Rome playing against Germany, Cuba and USA.

We at UKBBA are working hard to grow this new and exciting sport for the visually impaired in the United Kingdom and have already witnessed the positive impact it has made on the lives of those blind or partially sighted.

Currently, we are working hard to raise funds in order to take the game all over the country, encouraging new teams to start up and allowing more people to play the game. 

We have been invited this year to the WBSC European Championships. Our goal is to take a UK team to the competition to compete against other national teams including Italy, France and Germany. Those selected in the squad will have the honour of representing the UK and the opportunity to travel overseas competing against Europeans best. Our aim is to cover all costs for travel so that this will not financially impact on the players and officials and thus potentially dampening the honour of representing the country. 

Therefore we are currently looking for funders to help us reach our goal.

Would you be willing to help us by sponsoring our project with a specific donation amount or a percentage of the total expenses? We can offer you advertisement on our website and through our social media sites. 

Your generosity would mean the world to us. 

Why are we crowdfunding?

We don't have any external financial support and we have been invited to Italy to play in the European Blind Baseball Championships. We have selected 10 visually impaired players and 5 sighted assistants to represent GB in the competition. We want to raise money to allow this experience to be at no cost to those selected. Representing their country is such an honour and we would like to make sure that this doesn't impact or deter those selected from attending by covering the travel and accommodation costs.

How we’ll spend the money raised

Flights and Accomodation costs total £3,850 for the 15 players & coaches selected.

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Community impact

Without the support from funders & sponsors such as yourselves we would be unable to offer these unique opportunities to those who do most deserve to benefit from this rapidly growing sport.  Being part of and witnessing the impact sport can have on those who are most deserving is hugely rewarding. The game will continue to grow both nationally and in internationally. Taking this group overseas to represent GB will provide an amazing experience for those involved, many of whom who are at risk of being isolated and detached from society. This will help raise the aspirations of those involved whilst encouraging more people from the Visually Impaired community to get involved in this new and exciting sport.

How you can play your part

There are four simple ways to help us reach our target, and make this project a reality.

1. Make a pledge. Don’t delay if you’re going to support us because momentum is key to our success!

2. Spread the word. Share our project on your social media pages and tell the world to get behind us! The more people we reach, the more support we will get.

3. Offer rewards. Get involved if you are a local business by donating things we can offer to our supporters. We will give you a shout out!

4. Fundraise for us. If you want to run your own fundraiser – maybe a sponsored activity or similar – use the 'contact project' button at the top of our page to let us know. Setting up your own page only takes a few minutes and you won’t need any bank details. Just a fun idea!