‘It could only happen in a leisure centre’
‘It could only happen in a leisure centre’ – that’s the title of the charity book being launched by Right Directions Quality Management and Big Fish Public Relations to celebrate the companies’ 10th anniversaries.
Individuals from the health, fitness and leisure industry are being invited to submit their ‘funnies’, which have a chance to appear in the final book. Each month one story will be crowned funniest and awards will presented when the final book is published. Award categories will include the one that ‘made us laugh most’, the story that ‘made us feel sick’, and of course, the tale ‘we couldn’t quite believe’.
Right Directions Managing Director, Caroline Constantine, kicks it off, throwing an historic howler from 1993 when she was a Duty Manager into the pot. She says: “In the good ol’days we had YTS staff (for the youngsters, that’s Youth Training Scheme, a type of apprenticeship). On many occasions (long before lone working risk assessments) we would give our 16 year old YTS (we’ll call him Adam) a task and then forget what he was doing. One of his regular jobs was to clean the sports hall store.
“One day we couldn’t find Adam anywhere. Half an hour later he turned up and said he’d fallen asleep behind a gymnastics box in the store. It happened again the next day too. The missing Adam mystery was finally solved when a customer using the sunbed said she’d heard funny noises in the roof space. Adam had been clambering up through the ceiling tiles in the Sports Hall Store to peep through into the sunbed room next door – watching ladies stripping off to use the sunbed!”
“Some of the things I have heard over the years would make your toes curl,”said Abigail Harris, Managing Director of Big Fish Public Relations. “Generally of course, the sector has an exceptional reputation, but there some stories from the dim and distant past of ‘The Brittas Empire’style goofs that we can’t wait to share with the rest of the industry.”
Constantine couldn’t agree more. She continues: “CIMSPA CEO, Tara Dillon’s dolphin story has to be one of my all-time favourites, so watch this space if you want to hear more!”
Funnies can be submitted via email: funnies@bigfishpublicrelations.co.uk, Twitter: @R_Directions or @bigfish_pr, Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bigfishpublicrelations or https://www.facebook.com/Right.Directions.cc?ref=ts&fref=ts or via good old fashioned snail mail to Funnies, Big Fish Public Relations, 14 Canon Close, Rochester, Kent ME1 3EN.
The final book will be available to download for a nominal fee, with contributions going to the charity Aspire, which provides practical help to people who have been paralysed by Spinal Cord Injury, supporting them from injury to independence.
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Editor’s notes:
Right Directions provides health and safety and quality management support to the leisure industry, specialising in local authority and trust-managed sites, as well as smaller independent operators. Right Directions has 40 years experience within its field. www.rightdirections.co.uk
Big Fish PR specialises in the health, fitness and leisure industry, creating bespoke campaigns to increase awareness, boost credibility and ultimately drive sales. www.bigfishpublicrelations.co.uk
For further information contact:
Abigail Harris at Big Fish Public Relations
Tel: 07738 331019
Email: abigail@bigfishpublicrelations.co.uk
