About 100 local youth took part in a free lacrosse camps this week at the Walpole Island Sports Complex.
The Chatham-Kent Community Health Centre utilized a grant from the Chatham-Kent United Way Women’s Leadership Council, and with the help of some partners, held the free event all week long.
“It has been lots of fun,” said Kaelen Smith, nine-years-old from Wallaceburg. “They have been really nice to us, all of the people here. I’ve learned it isn’t all about your skill, it is about your accuracy and how you do it.”
Riley Roe, 12-years-old from Wallaceburg, said he learned some new shots and skills
“It has been perfect… pretty awesome,” he said. “We’ve been doing what we love and learning stuff while we’re at it.”
Brooke Smith, child and youth worker with the Chatham-Kent Community Health Centres, said members of the Bkejwanong Youth Facility have helped facilitate the event, along with members of the Iroquois Six Nations lacrosse program.
“This is our Physical Culture lacrosse program,” she said. “It is a free one-week initiative for youth six through 18. Focusing traditional box lacrosse, field lacrosse and various traditions of the game and the cultural piece of the game.”
Smith said every youth received a free stick the first day of the program.
“We’re here to have fun,” she Smith said. “It focuses on social inclusion… bringing Chatham-Kent and all surrounding communities in. We have participants from Sarnia, Moraviantown, Walpole, Wallaceburg, Chatham and all surrounding communities here.”
Smith added: “The response has been phenomenal, we have 100 youth registered for the program. We were very fortunate to receive a grant from the Women’s Leadership Council of the United Way of Chatham-Kent. This has allowed us to facilitate program such as this.”
Cam Bomberry, director of lacrosse for the Iroquois Lacrosse program, said the camp has been a project that has been in the works for a long time.
“We’ve been working through Steve Tooshkenig at the Youth Centre, we’ve been talking to him through the years but now we’ve finally been able to make this happen,” Bomberry said. “It’s really been a combined effort to put a lacrosse week on. which is exciting. Lacrosse popularity is really catching on out in this area. With the number of participants we’ve had out here this week, it’s been awesome.”
Bomberry said they brought some support staff to the Walpole camp, and some players currently competing
“My nephew Warren Hill is a goaltender in both field and box lacrosse and a member of our Iroquois national program that just participated in the world games in Denver,” he said.
“As well Randy Staats with the Iroquois nationals, he’s playing senior ‘A’ with the Six Nations Chiefs. Vaughn Harris, also a member of the national team, they all played in the world championships this past month. So these guys are just getting back from doing something like that, to giving back to something like this… it’s pretty cool.”
Adrian Murphy, the youth program leader at the Bkejwanong Youth Facility, said the program was an awesome opportunity for the youth to get together from different communities.
“It’s an awesome get together,” he said. “They really like that the Iroquois nationals came out. We had Warren Hill come out, a goalie. He was working with another goalie here, who was saying he was his idol for a couple years. For him to get a chance to meet him, that is pretty cool.”
Murphy added: “We have a lot of people out here, a lot of fun going on.”
The camp runs until Friday at the Walpole Island Sports Complex.
Here are some photos from the camp:
