The morning, which also included a free breakfast, was held at the Edgar Centre in Dunedin on Saturday, and about 115 school-aged children turned up. In exchange for a $3 fee, children got cricket, basketball, tennis and football training from sports clubs.
Heart Kids lower South Island regional family support co-ordinator Marlene Du Toit-Parks said the event had gone well and next year it would hopefully be even bigger, potentially with netball and rugby clubs involved. This was the first such event open to children from the wider public, not just the children with congenital heart defects that Heart Kids supported.
"We decided we would like to promote health and sport and wellbeing in kids of all ages."
Heart Kids Otago service co-ordinator Cecilia Sullivan-Grant said part of the morning was a presentation about what "heart families" went through.
The aim was to raise awareness, not to fundraise.
"We are really grateful to all of the sportspeople that came," she said.
The regional branch of Heart Kids supported about 300 in the lower South Island. Nine-year-old Port Chalmers School pupil Olivia Harwood said she loved the tennis component of the morning.
"It’s probably one of the best things I like to do," she said.
Otago Cricket fitness coach Blaine Clancy said he put the children through some of the drills he also used for players.
The players had "mentioned they hope to come back and do this a lot more", he said.
Former Black Cap Neil Broom, who was there with team-mate Mark Craig, said the morning was "really great". Children were there for all the sports — but the more young people that got interested in cricket the better, he said.
