Samara Cup boosts local youth through sport

GRAAFF-REINET NEWS - The Samara Heritage Cup tournament in honour of Mandela Day took place last Saturday at the Collie Koeberg sport complex and was once again a huge success.

Youngsters marched from the Narsingstraat Primary to the sport complex led by the VGK Brass band. Local netball and soccer clubs followed the band into the uncompleted sport complex.

"We really want to impact the youth in Graaff-Reinet through sport and entertainment," said Anneley Swemmer, community and lodge manager at Samara Karoo Reserve.

This year was Samara's 9th Heritage Cup Tournament and they are looking forward to increase the impact and the scope of the event. 720 local teenagers signed up to participate in the tournament through the local Football Association, including 127 girls in netball, nine local football teams from Graaff-Reinet and Jansenville.

The Samara Karoo Reserve Heritage tournament was founded by Anneley Gradwell-Swemmer from the Samara Karoo Reserve. Swemmer, who is Samara's community relations manager, wanted to give back to her community by starting the event.

A gumboot dance was performed at the opening of the Samara Heritage Cup.

Different sections of the community participate in sport, football and netball where most sporting codes are played in the streets or at informal sport grounds. Netball is growing fast and this tournament aims to develop opportunities for youngsters to reach their goals.

"The Samara Karoo Reserve in partnership with Dr Beyers Naudé Local Municipality, the Local Football Association (LFA) the DBNLM Netball Association, SanParks, and Camdeboo Spar made the tournament a success," said Swemmer. Sarah Thompkins, director of Samara, thanked the sponsors and Mike Augoustides of Mike Sports in Cape Town, who attended the event.

Each winning team received a floating trophy, a gold medals soccer kit, two soccer balls and a kit bag while each winning participant received 1kg of venison packs from Sanparks to do team building sessions over a potjie.

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