Holiday camp for underprivileged

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32801, 29 December 1971, Page 14

Holiday camp for underprivileged

A four-day camp to enable families and underprivileged persons to have a holiday and to learn some of the skills of family living will be held by the Anglican City Mission over the New Year holiday period. Fifteen children and 24 adults, including Open Door customers and past and present users of the mission’s night shelter, had enrolled so far, said the organiser (the Rev. M. J. Goodall) yesterday. Several others would spend a day at the camp.

The purpose of the camp, to be held at Hibbert Park, Spencerville, would be to bring people together to have a holiday in a Christian setting and to afford a chance to work out some of the problems of family living, he said.

Informal study groups would discuss such topics as how to discipline children, how to cope with family rows, and whether it made any difference by trying to act in these situations in a Christian way. Films drawing on Biblical examples would be used to provoke discussion. “The whole idea is to discuss subjects people want to talk about—-that is; the problems that concern them at this minute,” Mr Goodall said. The camp was designed particularly for families, but not all coming had children or were married. “Some are solo parents, others are separated and perhaps living on the outside of the community, and many are married couples who could not norm-

ally afford a holiday,” Mt Goodall said. Each person would contribute what he could towards the cost of the camp. Much of the balance had been met by donations. The site had been hired from the Church of Christ at cheap rates. During the day an important part of the programme would be taken up with outings to the beach and recreational areas. The camp is the second of its kind. The first one last year had been "tremendously successful,” Mr Goodall said.