2010 summer Sibun camps

Adventure race on the last day of the camp. All teams were training for 5 days for that day and now it was time to put their skills to the test.

One of the weeks Grand Master Maurice Ashley was leading one of the teams through the race.

Since he is known in Belize not just for chess, but also for his great physical shape, he was a perfect motivator for our players.

First part of the race: tubing through the rapids to the next station.

During one of the weeks due to the flood we could not do tubing, so teams had to measure the distance from the lodge to the cliff- not an easy task to do, when you have to race but also have to be accurate with your measurements- good life skill.

After tubing: leg-lifts

and push-ups

After that : rappel 120 feet of the cliff at Sibun river and race to the next station...

Tying knots is not as easy as it was during the training sessions- by this time everybody is exhausted, and the pressure of time is adding to the difficulty. The good thing though is that it is all done as a team, so kids can guide each other through the difficult parts.


Then, the race continues, now as a team they have to run all the way up and down the hills 3/4 of a mile back to the lodge where they have one more station- obstacle course.

All participants and coaches were working together and bonding during the camp, it was a truly national event- making friends from all the districts. Cayo player, Gabriel Cocom, and Toledo coach,Policarpo Cus finishing the race with the spectacular results.

The main theme of this year camp was Leadership and Team Work. Emphasis was on learning the 7 major Chess Knights Skills:

Effective Communication

Intellectual Curiosity

Physical Fitness

Swimming and Tubing

Chess

Tying Knots

Sport Competence as a team

Effective Communication: Culminating event - Book Talk Show. See below our favorite hosts and the participants:

Close-up to one of the book posters for the Talk Show:
Sharing their impressions from the books with the visiting Team of Golden Kings and Queens:
From the library of almost 300 books that were donated to BNYCF by scouts group in US, each participant had a chance to pick a book for reading during the camp,
as well as a lot of participants were awarded books of their choice to take home.
Intellectual Curiosity: culminating event- geography game. Teams were studying hard for that game: population of different countries, making comparison graphs of density of populations,,

During the game, watching photos from different countries around the world about nature, adventure, natural phenomena, architecture, and as a team they had to take notes during the presentation and then answer 50 different questions by going thru their notes and discussing with each other.

Sport Competence as a team: helping each other to learn or to improve.

Swimming: always with life jackets, combination of water games and learning how to swim.

Chess:

Grand Master Ashley was working with 24 best and most active players from all the districts

We also had 2 wonderful Mexican Coaches working with us for 4 weeks at the camp:

We did a lot of team chess activities as well:

Helping each other during puzzles time:


Blitz tournament

And now,, as these kids go back home they are eager to teach their friends and parents to play chess as well as share all the other useful skills that they learned in the camp. Each week they met players and coaches from other districts and made new friends. Our chess family keeps growing!