Throughout the month of July, clubs across Monaghan where a hive of activity with children taking to the fields to for the Kelloggs Cul Camps in their local club. This year has a seen a national rise in the numbers attending the camps and this trend was no different in Monaghan with a big increase seen in nearly every camp in the county. In total just under 1,500 children took part in the camps. Up 200 from 2013. Our biggest two camps where in Monaghan Harps (197) and Clontibret (131).

In addition, we had 3 new camp locations this year with Aghabog, Corduff and Toome all hosting one. It is great to see new clubs come on board and it is evident a lot of work was put in by each and every host club in promoting the camps in their locality. We would just like to pay particular thanks to all the host club Coaching Officers who distributed application forms, put up posters and signs and attended meetings in relation to the Summer Camps. All your hard work doesn’t go unnoticed and we thank you for the excellent promotion of our games to the younger members of our community.

In the Monaghan Harps camp we ran a number of different initiatives. In conjunction with the Monaghan Sports Partnership we ran a GAA For All Inclusive Camp which took place over the last three days of the camp. This was open to children who had an intellectual or physical disability. In addition to this children from St Patrick’s attended the camp. It was great to see children from a range of backgrounds attending the camps and we hope this inspires them to take up the sports within their local clubs.

Just like last year, all Monaghan Kelloggs Cul Camps where promoting the Irish Cancer Society’s SunSmart Code campaign. The campaign raises the awareness of protecting yourself against the damages the sun can have on the skin.

There are four main elements to the Sun Smart code which are

1. Seek Shade

2. Cover Up

3. Wear Sunglasses

4. Wear Sunscreen

The Sun Smart code also raises of the awareness of the UV Index. It tells us how strong UV levels are on a given day. The higher the reading the greater the risk of skin and eye damage and the less time it takes skin to burn.

You can checkout the UV Index reading for your area on cancer.ie/uvindex  

In the camps the coaches teach the children about the Sun Smart Code through fun activities, the main being a funny hat competition, where the children have to design a hat whichprotects your head against the sun but also looks funny!

We were lucky enough to have a number of our county players namely Kieran Hughes and Colin Walshe getting out and about all of the camps every week. This gave the children an opportunity to meet the players, get a picture with them and if they were really lucky, get their autograph! This is an element of the camp which all the children love and we would just like to thank all the players that helped out in any way possible. We know you have busy schedules and we appreciate the time and effort you put in to promoting our games through the Kelloggs Cul Camps.

We would just like to thank all our coaches. This year more than most we had a large number of coaches working on their first year of the camps. It was evident that they all brought something new and different to the camps which the children really liked. I’m sure the more experienced coaches even took new ideas and games away with them! Also we would just like to thank the ladies which helped out every Monday morning at the registration on the camps namely Anita, Martina and Marion. Our coaching and games staff as always acted as the Camp Coordinators and we would just like to thank them for all the tireless work they do at the camps each and every year.

Finally, last but by no means least I would just like to thank all the host clubs for providing the facilities for all our camps. We would also like to thank them for providing a facility to store all the gear. This saves our coordinators a lot of time each day loading and unloading the gear.

Unfortunately, while it was great to see a significant rise in the number of children attending the camps, nationally this led to a shortfall of kits and bags for the children. Extra kits and bags have been ordered and will hopefully arrive by the middle of August. For anyone who didn’t receive a kit or the proper blue and white bag, your Camp Coordinator will be in contact with details on when and where you can collect them. We apologise for any inconvenience this has caused you. If you have any queries in relation to this please do not hesitate to contact Paul O’Connor (email: developmentmanager.monaghan@gaa.ie or phone 087 837 4827)

We are already looking forward to you all attending the Camps next year! Hopefully we will see another increase and more clubs looking to host a camp.

Please see below for a selection of photos from all the camps this year.

Toome Full Group