▲ The Changwon Volleyball Association / President Gwangyong Lee

Changwon Special City is a large-scale machinery industrial complex within the heavy and chemical industrial area connecting Ulsan, Busan, and Sacheon. It plays a central role in the industrial economy of South Gyeongsang Province. The city also has all 11 characteristics of a healthy city defined by the World Health Organization, and has recently become famous as a volleyball city. The Changwon Volleyball Association has contributed to this and Monthly PowerKorea sat down with association president Gwangyong Lee and learned his passion.

Sports exchange leads to global exchange

The Changwon Volleyball Association is an organization that has created a city of hope through sports, contributed to the local community, and has dedicated itself to the development of volleyball and social service. President Gwangyong Lee leads a team of 44 officers and more than 850 members who have helped transform Changwon into a sports-active city. Every year, the association holds a tournament in early February, a national tournament in April to coincide with the Jinhae Gunhang Festival, a commemorative tournament in late May, and a tournament sponsored by the mayor of Changwon in December. At the tournament held in July, volleyball clubs and teams from Changwon City showed off their skills and received great response from the community. The association also has been participating in various volleyball tournaments nationwide and harvested good results. It started exchange with Yamaguchi City of Japan in 1998 and it has led to exchanges between students of both sides including the 12th Korea-Japan Youth Sports Games in August.

Walking with artists and making effort in social contribution

The association also contributes to the development of the arts and culture. In March, the association declared its partnership with cultural and artistic organizations and hosted a cultural event for the first time as a sports association. An official of the association said “We organized cultural and artistic performances to create opportunities for athletes to relate and interact with each other, not just compete in sports.” The performance was ‘HELLO MAMA’, a healing creative show musical with the theme of the pleasant, refreshing, and exhilarating deviance of ajummas (married, middle aged women), and was performed at MBC Gyeongnam Hall in Changwon. The show is about three housewives who are frustrated by their need to be women and their desire to connect with their families. With a cast ranging from 20s to 70s, along with talented mid-career actors, the show was very well received for the fun and emotion it conveyed as they moved across the stage together. All proceeds from the performance were used to fund the development of volleyball in Changwon City and to support the volleyball teams of Daewon Elementary School and Wolpo Elementary School. Every year, President Lee organizes a one-minded welfare promotion event for the retarded and delivers donated goods to the families of the participants. Through these activities, the association has transformed Changwon City from a volleyball backwater into a mecca for Gyeongnam volleyball and has been recognized as a prestigious sports club. In recognition of its activities and contributions, the association received the 2023 Korea Future Management Awards in the sports social contribution category on September 18.