Easter volleyball relief on Aitutaki

About 50 volleyball teams will take part in Aitutaki’s Cook Islands News Easter Volleyball Tournament on Easter Monday.

The big community sports day at Araura College is a Cyclone Pat Recovery Project sponsored by Cook Islands News.

It includes cash prizes of more than $2000, a set of trophies for the six age groups, plus promotional products worth about $2000.

‘The whole idea was to spread our company contribution around as many Aitutaki residents as possible,” says managing editor John Woods. ‘It was suggested a few weeks ago that after the setback of the cyclone, the island could not afford to run the popular annual event. We thought this was a worthy project and good cause.”

Games will run at 20-minute intervals non-stop from 9 in the morning to the open finals at 4 o’clock. With 13 open men’s teams and 14 in the open women, there are also good numbers in the under 13 and under 16 both boys and girls.

Tournament coordinator Rere Mataiti says a team of 10 has been working on planning for the day, which will include a free evening concert with guest artists from Rarotonga who have Aitutaki connections.

Local businessman Mike Henry, who suggested the sponsorship, says the objective is to “provide the people of Aitutaki some distraction from the challenges we all have been dealing with every day since cyclone Pat”.