
On Friday, the Faroese Sports Federation presented the Faroese Volleyball Association with the ‘Campaign of the Year’ award for 2018 for their ‘Kidsvolley’ project that has run now for a couple of years promoting and introducing Volleyball to kids in schools in the Faroe Islands. The idea with Kidsvolley is that the youngest kids start with some very basic and altered Volleyball rules, which then evolve as the kids grow and according to their improved motor skills. For the last couple of years, the Danish couple Peter Morell and Anne Frederiksen have been in charge of the project of introducing Volleyball to a large number of kids and teachers throughout the country, and in his acceptance speech, the President of the Faroese Volleyball Association Magnus Tausen was quick to praise them. “Fortunately Peter and Anne had a dream to come and live in the Faroe Islands. They wanted to embark on an adventure. We have become a part of this adventure. They have visited every school in the country, and in most of them, they have held lessons in ‘Kidsvolley’ for teachers and kids,” he said. Mr Tausen also mentioned the importance of the broader aspects of the sport as it contains so much more than the game itself: “It is also about making good friendships, helpfulness, respect for each other and solidarity across gender, abilities and age. A Volleyball-kid shall learn all of this and have the feeling of being important and being a part of something greater. That is what we try to achieve in addition to having the world’s best ball-game for all children,” Mr Tausen added. The Faroese Volleyball Association has been organising school tournaments throughout the country, and in the spring a final round will be taking place for regional winners to find a national school volley champion. There is no doubt that this action – which runs under the umbrella of the CEV Schools Project – has paid dividends as there are numerous examples of children who have been introduced to Volleyball in the schools and who have later joined a Volleyball club. Often it has been children who had not practiced any other sports prior to their introduction to ‘Kidsvolley’. |