Turning a meaningful charity sport event into social change

Abstract

Charity sport events continue to increase in popularity and have been shown to provide meaningful experiences for participants. This research evaluates how the meaning derived from a charity sport event translates into social empowerment and social engagement among participants. An online questionnaire was administered to participants in the 2007 Lance Armstrong Foundation (LAF) LIVESTRONG Challenge (N = 568) to investigate the relationships among recreation motives, charity motives, attachment, social empowerment and social engagement. Results indicate that attachment mediates the link between motivation factors and both social empowerment and social engagement. The authors propose that charity sport event managers should promote the event as an opportunity for participants to collectively serve as advocates for the cause and increase awareness of the relevant social issues.