The Biggest Summer Camp Concludes in Orange Walk
By any account, one of the biggest summer camp is held in Orange Walk. One thousand seven hundred students to be precise attended the event in the Orange Walk North constituency. It concluded today with a celebratory mood for the young participants. News Five’s Duane Moody reports.
Duane Moody, Reporting
For over a decade, Area Rep. Gaspar Vega has been hosting a summer camp in the Orange Walk North constituency. In its twelfth year, the camp, which caters to school-aged children from five to thirteen years old, has grown to become the largest activity in the division. A whopping one thousand and seven children and three hundred and seventy-five instructors from ten villages took part in the camp this year.
Gaspar Vega
Gaspar Vega, Area Rep. Orange Walk North
“The summer camp is something positive for each and every kid, but more important for the entire community. I want to say special thanks to Miss Kathleen Flowers for being so instrumental in introducing the adoration time in our summer camps. She was the first that insisted and since then, every village practices adoration before every summer camp on a daily basis. The main objective of our summer camp is for us to learn to respect each other, to learn to share with each other, to learn to have kindness for each other so that at the end of the day, our communities will become a better community.”
At the closing ceremonies held today, all children received certificates of participation. But they walk away with much more. Throughout the two weeks summer camp, they learned the basic skills and techniques of various sports as well as educational subjects.
Carlos Zetina
Carlos Zetina, Camp Organizer
“Some villages organize it in one week. They are in charge of organizing and the planning and then they decide on whether they want to do arts and craft, whether they want to do football or basketball, volleyball; we have softball. So the different disciplines that they want to involve the children is with the planning with each village and that is what they execute for the two weeks or the one week that they do their camp. But let me tell you that we have been through all the villages and it is really impressive what these leaders in their communities have done in their different villages.”
For years, the Taiwanese Embassy in Belize has been supporting; this year they donated six thousand dollars for the program.
Benjamin Ho
Benjamin Ho, Taiwanese Ambassador to Belize
“We partner with these events every year and we are pleased to be a part of this activity. Each year we are so happy to see that the number orf participating students are growing. I believe this year, they say there are over a thousand students; that means that this program is very popular, very educational and very worthy for the kids.”
Duane Moody
“What does it say to the relationship that you guys have been building with different agencies across Belize?”
Benjamin Ho
“Well you know Taiwan and Belize are the best partners. We have a lot of relations government to government basis; we also promote people to people and these kinds of corporation. This program is part of that; this is not between government to government, but the embassy with the grassroots, the children.”
Duane Moody for News Five.
