INTRODUCTION
Little Athletics is a once a week summer fun activity for boys and girls, aged 5 to 15 years. Colleges United Soccer Club has offered the use of the Mount Crosby Sportsground as a venue for the season, which runs from September through to March. We are affiliated with the Queensland Little Athletics Association (QLAA).
WELCOME TO OUR NEIGHBOURHOOD
Running, jumping and throwing have always been essential life skills. In the distant past these skills were necessary for survival in hunting for food. Today, it could be said that our sedentary life style makes them just as important if we are to survive modern life in good health. As a child growing up in England, our street games were a daily part of life. Televisions, computers and even telephones were absent (does anyone else remember how good that was!)
Hopscotch, rope skipping, egg and spoon, sack and three legged races were some of our athletic pursuits, often with parents. Limited only by our imaginations, we played happily together, unknowingly progressing to maturity through the stimulus of exercise and the social interaction that is a characteristic of playtime. How fortunate we were to live in a smaller world protected and nurtured by our parents and neighbourhood friends.
All the sporting clubs in Mount Crosby and surrounding districts help to provide the quality playtime essential to the well-being and growth of our children. Participation in the activities of Little Athletics can only add to that old time neighbourly feeling of belonging to a community. Unlike the football codes and other team sports where most parents are spectators, athletics needs you to participate as marshals, timekeepers and the like to ensure success. Many helpers are needed each week. Please step forward and reward the members of the committee who have worked hard to keep the centre going.
Welcome to our neighbourhood and may we spend many happy hours together.
A WORD ABOUT MOUNT CROSBY SPORTS GROUND
Late in 1995 a steering committee headed by Alan Donovan set out to establish a soccer club at Mount Crosby Sports Ground. I was a member of that committee and within a couple of months the area that is now the main soccer pitch had been cleared and prepared for soccer to commence in season 1996. Seventy five boys and one girl registered for that first season and in 2003 over 200 boys and girls in 22 teams played at the sports ground.
This is not a promotion for the soccer club but illustrates what community togetherness can achieve. Through the financial support of Brisbane and Ipswich City Councils, Power Link, our own Progress Association and local business and also through the voluntary labour of many, the sports ground is now a major community asset.
The two main soccer fields now have in ground watering systems and floodlighting. Further development is planned by Brisbane City Council to the access road, parking and children’s play areas. Whilst facilities for athletics are not yet ideal, in the long term this will improve through community support and effort.
The sports ground has a long history and I hope that, in due course, the local Historical Society will provide a review of the part it has played in the community over the years. We are tenants for the future and must treat it as we would our own homes.
REGISTRATION AND FEES
The parent or guardian of a registered child is automatically an ordinary member of Colleges Little Athletics Centre and is entitled to vote at all general, special and annual meetings. Athletes do not have voting rights. Fees have been set bearing in mind the cost of ground maintenance and equipment needs. In addition, approximately half of the fee for each child must be paid to QLAA for insurance and administrative purposes.
The committee will endeavour to maintain a ‘low cost, high benefit return’ policy in its monetary management. Fees for 2009/2010 are:
** Tiny tots (3 & 4 year olds): $35.00
** Under 6 to under 15: $85.00
