Sports weeks in Wermelskirchen: Finally more exercise again

On Thursday there is potato salad with sausages for the eight to 14-year-olds. Around twelve o’clock, 36 children are sitting on the terrace of the Grün-Weiss tennis club enjoying their lunch break. They deserve it too. Because the little ones have already had a strenuous sports session. Two and a half hours of athletics were on the program in the morning.

The sport is part of the “sports weeks” in Wermelskirchen, which is intended to ensure that clubs in the city present their respective sport and recruit new members. From July 11th to 22nd, the TuS, the WTV, the KSB, the JCW, the ski club, the TC Grün-Weiss and the SV 09/35 offer handball, field games, gymnastics, judo, parcours, tennis, Athletics and soccer, and there will be an excursion. The children should be able to find out which sport they enjoy. The project is financed by the Sparkasse Wermelskirchen and subsidies from the Rhein-Berg sports youth.

The offer was mostly taken up by younger people, “interests change from a certain age,” says Walter Thiel, Managing Director of WTV. Nevertheless, the start of the program went smoothly, as Torsten vom Stein, second chairman of the city sports association, explains. “Because everyone knows each other here in Wermelskirchen, trainers were quickly found.” They also include sports students who help out during their semester breaks, and members of the Rhein-Berg sports youth and volunteers.

They always do sports with the children from Monday to Friday between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m., with a one-hour lunch break in between. “Of course, that’s much too long to eat,” says vom Stein, so after a short time a child is already standing next to his chair and asking when it’s going to continue. “How long do we have to wait?” asks another.

The program has been well received by the children, most of whom come from Wermelskirchen. “This week there are 36 children, next week there will be 24, but the need was even higher,” says vom Stein. Seven Ukrainian children are also taking part in the sports weeks, he continues. Some of them could already speak a few sentences in German, while others could only speak English or Ukrainian. “But after a few days, they can already speak several words of German,” he reports, based on the experience of the past few days. Vom Stein advertised the sports weeks in schools, and the city sports association wrote to clubs asking if they wanted to take part in the sports weeks.

The sports weeks have now been offered for more than five years, says Tanja Dehnen, managing director of the city sports association. Outdoor activities were offered during the first Corona lockdown, but unfortunately the weather was bad, she continues. Since many children did less sport during the pandemic, it is now important that things really get going again.

There will be no bad weather this year. “It’s going to be very hot next week, so we’ll have to set up the sprinkler system,” vom Stein suggests to cool down. After all, the children don’t have to walk far because the distances to the sports facilities are usually short. “For a group, for example, there is a path to the soccer field,” explains vom Stein. If the journey is longer, buses drive to the sports facilities organized and financed by the Rhein-Berg sports youth.

Special activities are also on the program in between, on Wednesday geocaching and a canoe trip on the Bever Dam were offered for the children. The next week the program starts all over again.

At the end of the sports week, each child receives a gym bag containing various information from the sports clubs. Until then, the children run around on the sports fields or shoot tennis balls at each other.