The Rochdale Borough is holding a series of events over the summer to celebrate the London Olympic Games. Events have taken place at Littleborough and Middleton with others planned for later in July.
 
With the start of the London 2012 Games less than a month away, the Big Games is a series of summer open days across the borough organised by Link4Life, the Rochdale Boroughwide Cultural Trust, to showcase local sports and arts activities and to encourage people of all ages to 'be inspired' to try something new or get back into a forgotten sport or arts activity. The events provide a chance to sample regular sessions with contributions from local groups and clubs.
 
Official Olympic mascot Wenlock made a special appearance to launch the first of the Big Games events in Middleton and Team GB's Nicola White called in to help with the junior hockey session in Littleborough. Nicola, 22, will be representing Great Britain on the Ladies Hockey team at London 2012 and her ambition to be in the Olympics goes back to being 8 years old and watching it on the TV. Nicola said: "Any young person watching the Games this summer could set their sites on becoming a future Olympic athlete. Now is the time to set yourself that goal."
 
John Taylor, Link4Life's head of sport and community services has been delighted with turnout at the events so far. "As the excitement continues to build there is a growing interest in getting active and improving personal performance in sport. The Big Games is a great opportunity for us to remind people of the wide variety of fantastic activities that are available throughout the Rochdale borough".
 
The Big Games has been recognised for helping to promote sport, culture and volunteering and has been awarded the Inspire mark as one of the London 2012 family of events being celebrated across the UK. Locally it is part of the celebrations for International Year of Co-operatives which earlier this year saw the Borough declared the 'World Capital of Co-operation'.