Leeds Rhinos Foundation returned to the Westfalen Garrison in Paderborn last week to deliver Rugby, Dance and Multi-sports camps for children of those in the Armed Forces from the region.
The partnership now in its third year, has seen a total of seven staff from the Leeds Rhinos Foundation visit the base to deliver a week long camp with over 120 children aged from 6-14.
The five-day camp is delivered to children based at the garrison from a forces background whose parents are serving abroad, offering first class coaching and fun activity for the children during the school holidays.
For the first time in 2016, Leeds Rhinos Foundation built on the success of the dance and Rugby camps offered in 2014 and 2015 to introduce a new multi-sports element to the week of activity.
With the Olympics around the corner the camp also enjoyed a special Rugby Olympics day on the Wednesday of the camp, trying out a range a Rugby related events including Rugby Golf, Rugby Rounders, Rugby Tennis, Relay races and everything from kicking and passing competitions to a cross bar challenge event.
Alongside the Rugby and Multi-sports delivery on offer from the Foundation, Dance Coordinator Nicola Booth and assistant Taylor Heaps provided a week of dance coaching in street and cheerleading.
On the back of delivering Dance at the camp for the first time in 2015, Nicola was able to visit one of the legacies of the charity working with the Westfalen Garrison, which has seen the camp incorporate its own Paderborn based Performing Arts School, the BFG (British Forces Germany) Dance Academy.
Nicola, who created the Rhinestones Dance Academy in 2009 and delivers dance to schools across the city as part of the Leeds Rhinos Foundation’s Dance offering was invited back this year to run the camp and meet up with BFG Dance Coordinator Andrea Hannon.
Booth commented:
“It was an honour to be asked to return to Germany having had such a great time on Camp with the children from the Garrison last year.
“I am delighted to see that Paderborn now has its own dance academy providing dance education and recognised qualifications to British Forces Children, who also get to take part in showcases and perform across Europe. The academy has clearly grown very quickly and is very popular already so hopefully Andrea and her team can continue to grow dance in the region and compete for many years.”
As part of this year’s camp, dancers were able to choreograph a performance for parents from the base on the final day to cap off another fantastic week, while the rugby camp competed in a final day Rugby Festival to put some of their new skills into practice.