IN PICTURES: Football club kicks off free summer camp to ‘aid mental health’ of kids in Angus
As the Summer holidays get underway - Arbroath Harp Youth Football Club wants to ensure children in the community have plenty of activity options to choose from.
An Arbroath football coach has told Tay FM that their football club is hosting its weeklong summer camp free of charge. Over 200 children are expected to take part in varying choice of sports including, table tennis, bowls and footgolf lasting until Friday 2 July.
Coach and coordinator Paul Gray wants to give kids - including those who are not club members, the chance to get out and active after more than a year of lockdown.
For him, this meant scrapping fees to their annual summer camp.
Paul told Tay FM: “We had to make sure that we were getting kids involved after the year of lockdown to aid with the mental health and recovery of children.”
He continued: “So, it was a question of how you do you make that happen? The obvious answer was to remove the financial barrier.
“Our main aim is to get as many children involved as we can. Now that the financial restriction’s not there, it’s open to everybody.”
The camp is relying on volunteers and donations from local suppliers to go ahead without financing.
According to Paul, there was no shortage of people willing to help: “The community response has been absolutely fantastic,” said Paul.
He added: “We’ve had a massive response from the club - all the coaches, the committee members, parents who’ve decided that they’re going to be there to chip in.
“If you look at a lot of the children turning up, they’re very shy, they’ve not interacted with children their own age. You get them all into the camp together, they have fun.
“It allows the parents that little bit of weight lifted –they have an outlet where they can send their kids even for a certain hour of the day just to burn off some steam.
“We’re happy to be the club that’s offering that.”
For more information on the summer camp and Abroath Harp Youth Football Club visit them on Facebook.
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