Published: 23rd December 2020
Following on from the success of summer and Octobers funded holiday camps, HGCT and Kixx Huddersfield joined in partnership this Christmas to run a 3 day holiday camp. With the support of Cllr Kendrick, Cllr Pattison and Kirklees Council, the camp was fully funded for children within Kirklees.
Their support allowed 85 children a day to enjoy the opportunity to access activities in a safe, fun and warm environment while adhering to Covid-19 guidelines.
Kixx Huddersfield director, Matt Ellison commented on the opportunity to support kids in Kirklees:
“We are absolutely delighted to be working in partnership with Huddersfield Giants Community Trust and The Zone this winter to ensure hundreds of children throughout Kirklees have had access to our first ever fully funded camp. A massive thanks must go to Kirklees Council whom without their support and funding none of this would have been possible.
The huge success of this camp has put firm foundations in place to enable Kixx Huddersfield and Huddersfield Giants Community Trust to support Kirklees Council even further with all of their future school holiday provisions.”
The camps were delivered across three areas of The Zone, on their two 3G surfaces and the large dance studio. It is also the home of HGCT. Activities included Gymnastics and Cheerleading, multi-sports, football, rugby, cricket and many more fun games. Held just before Christmas from Monday 21st to Wednesday 23rd December local sports stars Harry Toffolo, Kenny Edwards, Leroy Cudjoe and James Gavet, from Huddersfield Giants and Huddersfield Town made special guest appearances. There was also visits from BIG G and Santa!
HGCT Head of Sport, Dan Wilczynski commented:
“The camps have given us a positive end to an extremely difficult year, particularly for the children of Kirklees with a significant proportion of children living with social deprivation, not participating in much activity outside or inside of school and constantly increasing issues with weight, health and wellbeing the camp engagement has been a fantastic vehicle to begin to tackle this moving forward into 2021.
It’s always a great time of year to have children participating in such activities, getting active having fun and being able to offer funded places with lunch and healthy snacks included throughout each day, with the added bonus of the children meeting serval of their sporting hero’s is just incredible. Filling 225 places in less than a week seemed like an extremely ambitious task but with the hard work of both companies joining together we have hopefully made a significant impact this Christmas for the local community and fingers crossed we can sustain such camps throughout 2021.”
The camps delivered by Huddersfield Giants Community Trust and Kixx Huddersfield supported a total of 255 places, with children aged from 5 – 12 years from the Kirklees community. Each child’s place was fully funded keeping the children healthy and hydrated with food and snacks.
