The profile of table tennis in Australia is being enhanced by a project called the Pingpongathon where people come together to play 3 hours of table tennis as a fundraiser to support organisations combatting human trafficking and sexual exploitation. Last year 60 Pingpongathon events were held across Australia, including 3 table tennis clubs; UQTTC in Brisbane, Brighton TTC in Adelaide and High Street Road Uniting Church TTC in Mt Waverley. These events raised $30,000 and exposed their clubs to new people, a number of whom engaged in more with the clubs post the Ping Pong-A-Thon event.

TTA and state table tennis associations are wanting to back this project. We encourage clubs to consider running a Pingpongathon event in September or October this year. Attached is a General info pack about the Pingpongathon. Pingpongathon head office in Melbourne has additional resources and ideas that can help you run this project successfully, partnering with schools, churches and other community groups in your area.

Your club / association can get involved either by:

· Hosting a PPAT event; this would involve asking both your existing players and members of the wider community to participate, (from local churches, schools, Rotary, etc).

· Encouraging players from your club to participate in a PPAT event happening in your locality (2017 venues will be finalised in the middle of the year).

Attached is a General information pack about the project. Please consider this project at your next committee meeting, including what other local community groups your club might partner with to run such an event. Further information can be found at www.pingpongathon.com

We hope that all our affiliated clubs support this event.