How to combine sports and school in a way that allows young people to be successful in both? To achieve this worthy goal, the Finnish Olympic Committee is initiating, through its sports academies, a campaign to collect contributions for the coaching of young people. Metsä Group is the campaign’s business partner.
As part of the campaign, Metsä Group will donate coaching lessons to secondary school pupils and organise, together with the sports academies, open sporting events for families in selected locations where Metsä Group has operations.
“The well-being of young people is important for Metsä Group. We are happy to be involved in this effort to support young people’s well-being and encourage them towards a physically active lifestyle. Our production units offer varied job opportunities in different parts of the country and we generate wood trade income for forest owners across Finland. This is why it’s great that the benefits of the Olympic Committee’s campaign will extend throughout the country. It is valuable to give young people the opportunity to combine school and sports in a smooth way. The experience and know-how they will gain through sports will benefit them throughout their lives and will also come in handy in working life, when the time comes,” says Juha Laine, SVP, Communications at Metsä Group.
“Coaching activities are the most central development target of the sports academies. Our goal is to gather high-quality daily coaching and the necessary expert services around the academies, so that we can make the best possible skills available for young people engaged in sports. Anyone and everyone can support this work by making a donation,” says Antti Paananen, who heads the Finnish Olympic Committee’s sports academies programme.
The campaign to support sport will be launched on 8 December, in connection to publication of the athletes shortlisted for an award at the Finnish Sports Gala. The proceeds of the campaign will be directed to Finland’s sports academies (Urheiluakatemia), through which they will be allocated to the increase of school day coaching for secondary school students. Companies and private individuals can make donations in December through a website to be launched by the Finnish Olympic Committee and by way of text messages.