Goal: Identify Table Tennis Talent from differently abled school children Roadmap: Step-1: Hold Talent Hunt camps at schools for differently abled children in urban and semi-urban areas to begin with. Cover students in the age group 8 to 14 from the targeted schools to identify promising students showing potential for Table Tennis. The camp will run for 5 days (Mon thru’ Fri). Students would play in batches, with each batch playing 90 mins/day for 5 days. Experienced instructors would observe, guide and evaluate them. Step-2: Students having potential (as identified in Step-1) to be given structured training for a year to prepare them to compete in District and State level competitions. These training sessions would be conducted by experienced coaches in a Training Centre to be established in the school premises. Those who qualify would then have the opportunity to be adopted by State and National level institutions for advanced training, grooming and preparation to compete in global tournaments. TT Talent Hunt Camp at Bharari School for Deaf & Dumb Children (Bhandarkar Road) On 29th Nov 2018, Rotary Club of Pune Central launched a unique table tennis talent hunt camp under the National Mission of Stag and TTFI in the BMSK School, Bhandarkar Road, Pune for hearing and speech impaired children. These children come from socially and economically weaker sections of society. There was amazing participation by 40 boys and girls who were thoroughly excited before the event started and their excitement kept growing every minute as the camp progressed. Many of these children had never held a TT racquet or seen a TT table from close quarters. RCPC gave 1 table tennis racquet and 1 T-shirt to every participant who enrolled for the camp for giving boost to players to take up sports. RCPC also donated two TT Tables and one Mini TT table with surrounds for future practice after the camp. On the first day, some children instinctively started tossing and rolling the balls expertly even though they had never played TT before. This was a sign of true talent. A group of 15 talented children were shortlisted and are being provided regular training so they can participate in district/state level events. Dates for the Talent Hunt Camps: 30th November, 1st December, 4th and 5th December TT Talent Hunt Camp at Jagruti School for Blind Girls (Alandi) After an amazing start of the RCPC Table Tennis Talent Hunt Camp at the BMSK School for speech and hearing impaired children between 29th November and 7th December, 2018, the second Table Tennis Talent Hunt camp was held in the Jagruti Blind Girls School in Alandi, Pune on 15th Dec., 22nd Dec., 29th Dec., 2018, 5th Jan. and 12th Jan 2019 (Time 1.30 pm to 3 pm) for total 38 students. The initiative was completely supported by Rotary Club of Pune Central which provided TT Rackets and T-shirts to all participants and also donated TT Tables and Arenas for further training after the camp. For the first time in India, Table Tennis was introduced to visually handicapped girls. For three months, club members - Rtn Bhushan Thakur and R’Ann Arti Thakur (both being international TT champions) accepted the challenge and worked for three months on modifying table tennis equipment to suit the visually impaired students. They created a prototype, sound emitting, 80 mm Table Tennis Ball with an attached string which would enable the students to feel the ball's movements and also prevent it from falling down besides helping them to comfortably toss the ball and gain confidence. In the absence of any case study for reference, they experimented for three months and made some products ready for the camp. Their initial concerns and doubts proved to be ill-founded and the hard work paid-off. All the girls were able to play with this new invention and more importantly, they enjoyed the session. It was thrilling to see some of the kids holding a table tennis racket for the first time and knocking the ball comfortably. It was just unbelievable.