Record numbers attended the Kelloggs GAA Cúl Camps in Chicago last week and this week.
By John Harrington
The great work being done to develop Gaelic games in Chicago was very much in evidence at the Chicago Northside Kellogg's Cúl Camp last week.
Over 150 children took part in the Cúl Camp which was organized by Chicago Celtic Youth Gaelic Football Club and Limerick Chicago Youth Camogie and Hurling Club.
Chicago’s hard-working Games Development Administrator, Colm Egan, was hugely impressed by the record numbers of children who took part.
“I've never seen anything like it,” he told GAA.ie. “The clubs deserve huge credit for working very hard.
“They really pushed this particular camp and what's most impressive is that around 60 or 70 of those kids aren't currently in the club's programme, they're new recruits essentially.
“They've been drawn to the camp by positive advertising and school programmes that we've done. As GDA I do school programmes where every child we coach gets a physical flier or a virtual backpack that's sent to their home which includes our flier.
“So, if I do a day in a school, the following Monday the parents will be told that their kid took part in Gaelic games and here are the pictures and here's the contact information for the local club.
“On the back of that messaging and some great publicity by the clubs, they attracted record numbers to the Cúl Camp. All the kids wore Kelloggs Cúl Camps gear and it was a massive hit. If we can retain even 20 of those 60 or 70 children that aren't already part of the club's programme, that would be huge.”
Happy faces at the Chicago Northside Kelloggs Cúl Camp.
A second Chicago Kelloggs Cúl Camp is now underway this week on the south side of the city in Gaelic Park, and once again the turn-out has been impressive.
“There's a geographical split in Chicago between the Irish communities, there would be a north side and a south side,” explains Egan.
“This week I'm working at the southside camp and I've around 60 kids here for the last couple of days.
“So between both camps you're looking at over 200 kids which is a great success story for Chicago GAA.”
Egan is assisted in delivering the Chicago Cúl Camps by club volunteers and camp coaches who are in Chicago for the summer on their J1 visas.
Many of the Chicago Cúl Camp coaches are J1 visa students who themselves attended Cúl Camps in the not too distant past.
“Many of the 2023 leaders are Cúl camp graduates from all over Ireland, ably bolstered by Cúl camp graduates from our local clubs,” he says.
“The J1 Visa summer visitor coaches are graduates themselves of Cúl camps from far flung places such as Mayo, Cork, Monaghan, Dublin, Tipperary, Donegal, Galway, and Clare and are led by graduates of our local Chicago Minor Clubs who have participated in Cúl Camps in Chicago for more than 10 years.
“I think it's a nice touch that our J1 coaches all would have attended Cúl Camps back home in Ireland not too many years ago and here they are now thousands of miles away from home coaching kids at a Cúl Camp in Chicago.”