"Invictus" Community

As a universal language, sports bring people of different race and background together and cure discrimination. Based on true historical events, the movie “Invictus” tells us an inspiring and compassionate story about how Nelson Mandela, who became the President of South Africa after his release from the prison, has made great efforts to help the national rugby team win the 1995 world cup. Through the movie, we learned when people put aside their differences and unify together as a true community, they can achieve great victory.

The movie focuses on Mandela’s determination to unite South Africa using the national Rugby team Springboks as leverage to bring the white Afrikaner and the black natives together. The important of a united community is manifested through the story - it brings out the best of everyone to benefit the community as a whole and win. The movie shows us the key ingredient of establishing a united community – skillful leadership with genuine care.  In the movie, the President Mandela and the Captain of the Rugby team Francois join forces to lead a divided team to come together.  The President demonstrated his strong will of getting rid of the apartheid by keeping the staff who worked for the ex-president, hiring white Afrikaners as his bodyguard, and requesting more black players on the rugby team.  Although things didn’t go well initially due to the racial hung-ups, it is through the essential decision and the effort of the leaders that they are forced to work together and gradually see past their differences and find common ground between them – win for their country.  

During the process of building a united team, the President keeps it his responsibility to follow up on the team even when he is ill. Not only he is dedicated to the task himself, he also knows the importance for the players to connect with each other. He orders the players to take occasional breaks from Rugby to go out into the poorer areas and teach rugby to the natives. Through the common interest in sports, soon enough the entire team is out there helping children to learn rugby and install national pride, regardless of race. Playing rugby together makes them feel connected and identified as one community. From here we can see that engaging in activities together effectively brings a sense of togetherness and makes the members of community to bond easily.

Sport is an amazing event through which united community could be built with effective leadership.  As for the movie’s ending, the rugby team's victory is a triumph for the South Africa, and a metaphor for racial harmony.

Benefiting from Community Recreation

According to Beauvais's analysis in the report of "Literature Review on Learning through Recreation", it is stated that "there is virtually unanimous agreement on the importance of recreation in developing the physical, psychological and social abilities of children and youth".

As the report's evidence points out, physical activity is an important impact of growth and maturation for youth. There are many positive impacts of recreational activities: it increases muscle strength, motor fitness and aerobic capacity and declines in the risk of coronary disease for youth at risk; it helps kids to establish self-esteem, acceptance with peers, and brings about less boredom and results in fewer school drop outs. There even are psychosocial implications that kids who engage in recreational activities in their early years tend to keep their activity level up through life, and become more willing to get involved in organizations and communities.

After reviewing and evaluating various statistics and graphs, it is observed that the amount of good parks and play spaces in the neighbourhood obviously increased rates of participation in recreational activities, sports and the arts. Outdoor playground is very important to the well-being of children and our community. It promotes spiritual, moral and character development of children. Playing in playground not only helps with children's physical activities but also develop their cooperation and self-confident. Outdoor playground is also a complex social network for kids to learn relationship-building skills. They learn self-control, compromise and tolerating others.

Overall, Leisure activities and parks contribute to youth’s health, mental well-being, and overall physical fitness. It is essential to the holistic development of our children and youth. Therefore, it is important for our communities to support the upgrades and expansion of recreational facilities. Canadian government also emphasizes on the needs and impacts of recreational development. “Our government knows the investment made to improve these local playgrounds reflects the importance these facilities have on the community’s quality of life,” said Ashfield, Minister of the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency. Improvements will increase the accessibility to valuable community recreational facilities while generating additional local economic activity. Promoting more recreational activities will greatly benefit our youth and the community as a whole.