IT IS SUMMERTIME and children are relishing their freedom from school and the transition to the more relaxed setting of summer camps for many of them.
The roving Street Beat team came across three entities working with children over the holidays. The first one was the National Sports Council (NSC) at Blenheim, St Michael, which holds the largest camp with well over 1 000 participants.
The NSC’s assistant director of sports, Mona Alleyne, said they were seeing 1 200 children across 15 venues in the first week and expected more children would be signing up.
“We have not had less than 1 400 children in the past 16 years,” she said. “It is a very attractive sports camp and because it is not costly to parents, a lot of people come. We have had more than 1 600 children before.”
She said they were holding a number of sporting activities, including football, swimming, tennis, hockey, cricket, basketball, volleyball and road tennis.
“The majority of the camps are in the vicinity of the gymnasium. Swimming fills within the first two hours of registration followed by tennis. Here, we have two groups – a football developmental group and a specialty cricket programme,” she said.
Alleyne said this large number of participants called for a lot of equipment, something they were lacking.
Senior coach Wayne Robinson said the sports programme had spawned some renowned athletes but it was always a case of getting out of it what you put in.
“Some children aren’t really interested but there are others who have gone on to have sterling sports careers. It shows things can happen as long as you are dedicated,” he said.
Coach Kenville Layne is the head of the football programme. He said the young ballers were taken from the Bico competition but were not in any club.
“These boys are all from rural areas and we will continue to work with them even after the camp to get them placed in BFA (Barbados Football Association) competitions,” he said.
The second entity visited by Street Beat was Variety, the Children’s Charity. While not a camp per se, they were holding a special event for special children along with volunteers from the recent Caribbean and Central America Swimming Championships.
“This year the characters on our gold hearts are Minions from the movie so we wanted to take the children to see it when it opened at the Olympus Theatres. LIME gave us 50 tickets for the children to come and Olympus provided the snacks. We were also joined by some members of a swimming club,” said executive director Donnah Russell.
Russell said they usually took the children to see movies over the summer vacation but this time was special due to the link with their gold heart programme. She said the children loved the movie and the next one would be in July.
The St Philip junior cricketers camp was taking place at the King George V Memorial Park. Counsellor Tuarean Forde said about 30 children were learning about discipline and teamwork.
“This camp was founded by coach Trevor Alleyne,” he said. “We have boys and girls learning the fundamentals of the game and there is a lot of talent here, especially the lone young lady here. I think she can play for the national women’s team if she continues.”
Forde, himself a product of the programme, said he learned much and was glad to come back and be a counsellor. He said he saw it as a way to give back and help young upcoming players.
The next events for the camp are a friendly against an England Under-13 team on Friday and the Charlie Griffith Tournament on Sunday.
carlosatwell@nationnews.com