When Warren Hawke and the Community Trust appointed Tom Elliott earlier this year, not one of them could have anticipated how successful the summer camps would be at Battery Park, Dunoon Stadium, Wemyss Bay and Port Glasgow during the school holidays. The camps have run in partnership with Inverclyde Leisure, Active Schools/Sports Development Inverclyde, SFA and Dunoon Youth Football League. Allan Moore and Mark McNally officially kicked off our summer camp launch in style at King’s Oak Primary School on 5th June with some lucky Primary 3 children. Also in attendance was Stuart Rafferty (SFA Development Manager), our CEM, Tom Elliott and “Cappie the Cat”. The countdown was now on for Elliott to deliver all he had promised.
GMCT caught up with Elliott this week at Battery Park as he told us, “it’s been magnificent and l have personally been overwhelmed by the number of children taking park. I must say a big thank you to all the parents for supporting the programme by bringing the kids along every day and joining us on a Friday for presentation day.” GMCT are delighted at the enormous amount of positive feedback, not only by parents returning feedback forms but from additional comments posted on Facebook and Twitter.
Elliott added “Thanks to parents for taking the time to respond to our feedback form and we already have ideas on how to improve our camp programme to make it an even more enjoyable experience to the kids of Inverclyde and Dunoon.”
David McCorkindale from Inverclyde Leisure said “I’m aware the camps have been very popular over the course of the holiday break and the good weather has helped to influence the young football generation to get fit and active outdoors. It was also great to see the young talented players with the Renfrewshire cup, Allan Moore and players last week. It’s a great way to involve the children of the Inverclyde community in Morton’s recent victory and make them feel part of the success.”
GMCT can’t thank Allan Moore, Mark McNally and the players enough for their continued support. From the official launch until the final presentation day, Morton FC has created a buzz around the summer camps and after all the shirts have been signed, the lads join the kids in a kick about.
GMCT coaches and volunteers have thoroughly enjoyed being part of this summer camp experience and massive thanks go to every one of them, who helped to deliver the camps on a daily basis. The enthusiasm and encouragement that was given to the children who attended the camps has been outstanding and let’s hope the lads now enjoy a well earned break.
It can’t go unnoticed the coverage that GMCT received from all the media partners. The Greenock Telegraph helped to promote our camps from start to finish, featuring many wonderful photos, while Inverclyde Radio and YourRadioFM included GMCT interviews during their shows. Other partners that assisted GMCT were the Dunoon Observer, Cowal Courier, Dunoon Community Radio, Argyle Independent Radio and Inverclyde TV.
So there we go, certainly a ton-tastic summer but what did Hawke think? GMCT met with Warren Hawke this week just to get his thoughts on the success of the summer camps, “the coaches have been fantastic, led by Tom’s vision and l believe we have delivered much more than expected. These coaches thoroughly deserve a rest, they must be shattered!”
Hawke continued “just because the summer has finished doesn’t mean the fun and participation stops, so l am pleased to announce we will be expanding Mini Morton. We want kids to be involved every week of the year and all the fun returns in October for the structured weekly camps. Keep an eye our for all the dates.”
During our final day of camps at Battery Park Inverclyde TV joined everyone to take some footage and interviews on the success of the summer camps. Links will be posted on Facebook and Twitter once they become available.
One final word from Crawford Rae, Chairman of GMCT and Director of GMFC;
“Having had the pleasure of taking in a number of the summer camps over the last few weeks l was obviously knocked out by the pleasure that the kids were taking from their activities, but from the Football Club’s perspective what stood out the most for me was the enthusiasm that Tom Elliott has brought to our Club and instilled in all the coaches and volunteers. This was incredibly refreshing and exciting for the future of Greenock Morton’s involvement within the local community. A massive thanks to all involved including Inverclyde Leisure, Active Schools/Sports Development Inverclyde, SFA and Dunoon Youth Football League.”
