ORKNEY ASSOCIATION OF YOUTH CLUBS FIT4IT 28th MARCH 2007

Youth Scotland has had an annual national FIT4IT competition for a number of years. This has always proved to be popular with our local youth clubs.

We would plan heats in Orkney; for each of the events and the winning person or team would go on to represent Orkney Youth Clubs in the National Finals in Perth.
It has always been a major event in the Youth Club calendar, not only as a chance of winning the event, but for all the youth clubs to come together.

Youth Scotland decided that as the numbers of participants, from all over Scotland, have fallen dramatically over the past two years, it was time to rethink the FIT4IT event.
It was decided to cancel this years national FIT4IT and use the money instead to send Youth Scotland’s FIT4IT co-ordinators around the country to try and drum up previous enthusiasm.

O.A.Y.C. decided to go ahead with our usual heats and instead of a trip to Perth; the young people competing would win prizes for their individual clubs.
We started planning for this event in November 2006. It was decided to hold the events in the Dounby School Orkney. I then decided to go and visit all the affiliated clubs to try and find out what sports the young people would be interested in competing in.
 
The sports chosen were:

• Table Tennis
• Badminton
• Pool
• 5 a-side Football
• Darts
• Netball

It was decided to keep to the FIT4IT rules and regulations. This meant having under 15 and under 19 age groups for girls and boys and members only allowed to enter two events. Referees for each event were easily found; we even had people volunteering their services!

Ten youth clubs put names forward for the event, 163 young people took part. The numbers would have been more but Fit4It lost out on some of the youth club footballers attending Dounby Football Club Jubilee Celebrations. It was decided to hold Round Robins for some of the competitions and a knockout for the more popular events. Most of the clubs had a fair distance to travel to the event and it was thought doing the competitions this way would make it worth the travel.

Special thanks to Orkney Ferries for putting back their sailing time to allow Sanday and Stronsay Clubs to participate in the event

Community Wardens  and Woman’s Aid Orkney came along to the event armed with quizzes, questionnaires and prizes. This helped fill in the young people’s time while waiting for competitions

Special thanks must also be said to Malcolm Russell (magician) who came along and gave two performances during the event. This is what I call real dedication as after the first performance he left to pick up his luggage, lock up his house, come back, perform and then go straight to Stromness as he was leaving for Canada the next day!

Youth workers gave up their spare time to come along and cheer on their clubs, lend a hand and fill in any spare time with games.

Everyone seemed to have a great day, with the prizes being shared amongst all the clubs attending. The young people really felt they had achieved something especially when presented with individual medals and a prize for their club

We received funding for the FIT4IT event from:

Awards for All
Local businesses (sponsorship)
Fundraising by Orkney Association of Youth Club members

O.A.Y.C. would like to thank all the local business for their continued support, referees, youth workers, Community Wardens, Woman’s Aid Orkney,Hamnevoe restaurant, staff at Dounby School and last but not least all the young people for participating and making it such an enjoyable day