Article By Gordon McCracken.
MORTON in the Community gave local children a goal-den opportunity to enjoy the beautiful game week by hosting a pair of ‘pay what you can’ football camps.
Kids from across Inverclyde took part in a whole host of footballing activities at the events, which took place at Lady Octavia Sports Centre and the Battery Park.
The events were the second edition of a programme the charity launched during this year’s February half-term break with the aim of removing any financial obstacles preventing youngsters from playing football.
Children attending the camps are not required to pay a set fee to participate, instead having the option to donate whatever sum they please.
Since the launch hundreds of children have taken part in the initiative and the programme’s organisers say that a good number of them are youngsters who would not normally come to holiday football camps.
Morton in the Community’s ‘Football for All’ lead Blair Kelly, told the Tele he felt the initiative was helping them reach new groups of children.
He said: “We just want kids to have no barrier to playing football.
“Across many sports, not just football, kids are being priced out which is just horrible.
“If we can ease that for kids and give them opportunities where we possibly can then that’s something we’re keen to do.
“We work closely with our partners at Active Schools and they'll pop up to the camps.
“I was having a conversation with one of them the other day and they said they're seeing kids that they've never seen attend camps.
“They know them from schools but they never attend any sport or sport class/
“We've probably hit 400 participants across the two camps now which is massive.
“We’re looking to potentially run a few over summer, hopefully the dates will follow in the next week or so.”
Morton in the Community have also decided to split the cash collected from latest edition of the ‘pay what you can’ camps between themselves and Ardgowan Hospice.
Blair said that they had been keen to work with another worthy local charity.
He added: “We’ve looked at how we can partner with other charities to benefit them and with the amazing work that Ardgowan Hospice do locally, we wanted to support them.
“We’re giving kids an opportunity to play football while giving something back to Ardgowan Hospice as well.
“It’s over £200 going to the hospice, which might only make a small dent in what they have to do from day to day, but at least we're able to give something back to them for the great work they doin the local community.
”Half the proceeds will be going towards us at the community trust and then half going towards them.”
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