ESTEVAN —The Estevan Public Youth Centre is hosting its first-ever EPYC Olympics in July.
The series of fun sports-like events will start July 4 and will run through July 8.
"We decided that we wanted to expand our summer programming a little bit with our new executive director that we hired this year. He has been trying to incorporate some new ideas, trying to take a look at what the needs are in the community, and as well, he's been working with a core group of student leaders, and they wanted to do something that is a little more fun, something different than they're doing during the day," said EPYC board member Patrick Fisher.
"They're trying to get used to feeling more apt to come into the centre, trying to do things outside."
There are five days of various fun Olympic events on the agenda. Participants don't have to partake in all of them and can choose what they are more interested in.
The event is open to current EPYC patrons as well as any youth interested in joining.
"We are consistently getting new youths who have never visited the centre before, which is good. It's also an opportunity for those that aren't familiar with the centre or haven't been there to try it out," Fisher said.
"Now with the change in grades, there's a lot of earlier grades getting excited that they can start coming to the youth centre over the summer."
Fisher noted that EPYC is trying to find the right balance between various types of activities for their youth.
"We're trying to have a balance between all different activities to give youths reasons to come in every day based on what they're most comfortable with. If they are more interested in board games, there are board games. If they are into something more physical, we're trying to get back to renting the [leisure centre’s] multi-purpose room and renting out the pool to be able to provide programming on that side. It's all about trying to find balance in everything. And with summer when the weather's nice, we definitely want to try and do more things outside," Fisher said.
Olympics is one of the options to get the physical game component added to their days.
The week of the Olympics will go as follows:
July 4 will see the Floor is Lava Relay Race for teams of two.
In this game, there will be a series of objects and furniture to use and jump around in order to make it through to pass an item onto the next person. If a player touches the ground, they go back to the start.
Then it will go into Ultimate Hopscotch. In this game, individuals will play in a giant hopscotch game where balance is key.
The next day, participants will compete in Just Dance Dance-Off – a bracket tournament to determine the best possible Just Dance dancer.
Yeatball for teams of two will follow. Skeeball meets cornhole in this even larger challenge. Players will alternate back and forth throwing a ball at a large board with different holes that are each worth different amounts of points.
July 6 will start with the Fill Your Bucket Speed Race for teams of two. Teammate A will hold the legs of teammate B while teammate B will walk on their hands. While holding the handle of a small bucket in their mouth teammate B will use their hands to pick up all the items along a path to the finish line.
The same day will be Sharp-Shooter, in which using a Nerf gun, participants must hit as many targets in two minutes as they can.
On July 7, Olympics contestants are invited to partake in Name that Flavour. For this game participants will be tasting various hotdogs all boiled in various liquids.
Later that day will be Crab Soccer for teams of two, in which kids play soccer while moving around like a crab.
Finally, July 8 will see the Limbo Relay Race for teams of two. The first person on a team will limbo through, then pass an item to their teammate, who will then limbo through the course, passing the item back to their teammate goes through a second time with the limbo bars being lowered.
The same day will be the Jump Rope Race, for which participants will have to race while jumping a rope.
If anyone wishes to sign up, they can come into the centre and register for any games. Five of the games require a teammate.
EPYC is also seeking new board members as well as volunteers to keep their operations going smoothly and to keep local youths engaged.
"We're looking to try to have people who are invested in wanting to see the youth centre continue on to join our board," Fisher said.
"Volunteers are also in need. It's not a huge commitment. It requires a criminal record check. And basically, you can come whenever you're able to. It's a really good chance to interact with youth. It is a lot of fun. And we've started to get a couple of new volunteers, which is good, but having more is always nice."
For more details, phone the centre at 306-421-3134.
