STOKE HEALTH CAMP

Marlborough Express, Volume LXXVII, Issue 21, 27 January 1943, Page 6

STOKE HEALTH CAMP

CHILDREN DOING WELL. GENERAL BENEFIT TO HEALTH. Reports reeeived by the Marlborough Health Camp Association are that the nine Marlborough children who are attending the combinecl camp at Stoke, Nelson, are in good health and enjoying themselves. The seven girls and two boys of the Marlborough party went to camp on December 29 and they are to return on February 9. Set in open grassy paddocks against a background of tall poplar trees, the camp is ideally situated in a sheltered corner of the hills at Stoke, reports the Nelson Mail. There are 50 children from Marlborough, Nelson and the West Coast enjoying the benefits of sunshine, healthy focds, rest, and an ordered routine. The spaeious wooden camp buildings were erected in 1940 by the King George V Memorial Fund Board. The rooms are light and airy and the building is complete with baths, showers, wash-rooms, and every facility for cooking, laundermg and caring for the children and the staff. The camp is in charge of Matron Garlana* a Health Department official, who is a trained nurse. Assisting the matron are a night nurse and nine student teachers from Canterbury and Wellington Teachers' Training Colleges. These girls supervise the children, organise games, and help in the work of the camp. Two cooks and a laundress are also employed and a youth to do odd jobs about the camp and to help with the boys. The staff is quartered in a separate building, each bedroom containing a bed and built-in dressingtable and wardrobe. The rooms are light and open on to a long verandah. MARKED PROGRESS IN HEALTH. Children considered to need the benefits the Health Camp can provioe are aamitted on the recommendation of the school medical officers, each district being responsible for the selection of the group of children to be admitted from its area. From records taken on entry to the camp a careful check is kept of the progress of each child. The healthy outdoor life, regular hours, wholesome food and sunsnine have had a marked efiect on the health of most of the children. One little girl has already increased in weight by six pounds since she came to the camp on December 29. Weight checks are made regularly and progress charts kept. The children start the day at a quarter to seven in the ihornings when they get up, wash, and dress and make their beds, the bigger ones assisting the younger ones at these tasks. Their beds made and their lockers tidy, the children play about until time for breakfast at eight "o'clock. After this comes toothbrush and handkerchief drill. Every morning at 9.30 matron holds medical inspection in the dormitories. Games outside follow until ten o'clock, when, after a drink of milk and half an apple each, the children go off for a walk. On their return they rest until it is time to get ready for dinner. On fine days they may lie 011 their ground sheets out under the trees for their rest period. After dinner games are played, followed by a swim or another ramble. A swimming pool in the creek which runs through the camp ground is a great asset and the boys and girls enjoy their dips, which are always taken under the supervision of an attendant nurse. At about three o'clock the children have another cup of milk each and sometimes another half apple before the afternoon rest hour, which lasts until 4.30. For this period of relaxation the children lie flat on their backs on their beds, covered with a blanket. The dormitories are long rooms each containing two rows of small wooden beds, and, beside each bed is a locker in which the children, keep their personal belongings. Tea usually consists of lettuce or tomato, brown bread, with a piece of cheese, jam, wholemeal scones, with raisins, weetbix and a drink of milk. COST BORNE BY COMMITTEES . After toothbrush and handkerchief drill again, the children are free until bedtime. This free time is spent in games, concerts, or other entertainments. Sometimes a movie film Will be shown, or an impromptu eoncert will be staged. On evening recently the children entertained the staff at a concert entirely organised and produced among themselves. In return the nurses entertained the children with songs and items at the next concert. It is estimated that this year it will cost the Health Camp Committees more than 27s 6d per week for each child in the camp. The parents are required to make no contribution towards the upkeep of their children during the six weeks they are in the camp, and many children arrive without even a twopenny stamp to write a letter home. The Health Camp Committees bear the entire cost, wihch is met by voluntary contributions and by the proceeds from the sale of health stamps in the district. The Marlborough and West Coast districts are each responsible for providing the finance to meet the expenses of keeping the children sent by them to the camp. Donations of fruit and vegetables, an essential part of the health diet of the children, have been reeeived and make the most welcome gifts.