30 July 2012

Lakes Leisure Provides Olympic-Themed Sports Event for Local Kids

Wakatipu Kids Games, an inaugural sports programme developed for local children by Lakes Leisure, will culminate with an Olympic-themed inter-school competition this Tuesday and Wednesday at the Queenstown Events Centre. The Games aim to get kids who might not normally be involved in sports to give it go through opportunities for skill and confidence development. Lakes Leisure developed the programme with support from KiwiSport, Sport Southland, Netball Southland, Southern Regional League, Queenstown Junior Football and five local primary schools to encourage children towards greater sports participation.

Lakes Leisure coaches plus specialist guest coaches visited Years 5 to 8 at Queenstown Primary School, Remarkables Primary School, Arrowtown Primary School, St Joseph’s Primary School and KingsView Primary School throughout Term 2 to provide every child with one hour’s coaching in the four different sports of netball, football, ripper rugby and kiwi league. More than 700 children from these schools will now bring the skills they’ve learned to the Events Centre to compete in a round-robin style sports competition as well as opening and closing ceremonies where each class will represent a different country. Mayor Vanessa van Uden will be closing the games and volunteer students from Wakatipu High School will referee the matches.

“We developed this programme firstly to increase student participation by giving them opportunities to learn new skills and connect with local sporting groups at no cost to schools or families, and secondly to connect and build relationships between schools and communities.” said Jendi Paterson, Community Programme & Recreation Coordinator. “The programme has already proven to be very successful, especially when it comes to the kids having fun and learning new skills, and we look forward to finding different ways to continue the programme in the future.”

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