Sports councillor Jordi Vidal reported today on a partnership agreement between Vellmarí diving school and the administration to fund diving instruction for Formentera residents. Vidal used a morning press conference, attended by school director Manu Sán Felix and CiF environment councillor, as the forum for the announcement.

Councillor Vidal laid out the Council's plan to foot 50 per cent —up to 7,000 euros— of residents' diving course costs. Residents under 17 will not only qualify for the Council's 50-per cent subsidy, they will have the opportunity to benefit from an additional 25 per cent reduction thanks to Vellmarí. In all, locals above 17 will pay 100 euros and younger students will pay 75. The aim, as Vidal pointed out, is to encourage diving among locals.

The partnership has been in place between Vellmarí and the Council for more than a decade. Thanks to the initiative, more than 650 Formentera locals have been introduced to the world of diving. According to Sán Felix, an additional 50 to 80 will be able to discover diving thanks to this year's reduced fees. The councillor of environment underscored the importance of “educating and instructing Formentera residents about the vast wealth contained in our underwater world and the nearby posidonia seagrass prairies”.

The CiF councillor of sport, Jordi Vidal, met today with local Yoga Day organiser Flor Mauger to unveil the activities programme on a week-long event that kicks off tomorrow, Friday June 17, and doesn't finish until International Yoga Day, next Tuesday. Mauger is joined by five of the island's resident yoga instructors —Suzanne Laier, Claudio Valdiserri, Irina Zadek, Olga Dargel and Eva Oller— in organising a programme packed with free, open-to-the-public activities for kids and adults.

Marking the start of the programme, tomorrow at 8.30pm, will be a photo exhibit by Guillermo Ferrer Torres titled Viu feliç al teu ecosistema (Living happily in your ecosystem). The exhibit will be displayed at Centre Antoni Tur “Gabrielet” and will conclude with a video screening. Back at Gabrielet on Saturday and Monday, June 18 and 20, the crew of yoga instructors will be on hand through early afternoon until two and then again in the evening with information about the manifold variants of yoga that exist. The evening programme on these days also includes video screenings.

Yoga Day
Tuesday, June 21, is finally the big day. From nine in the morning till ten at night, activities for both children and adults will be hosted in Jardí de Ses Eres (behind the Sant Francesc church) and at Centre Gabrielet. During the day events range from practice-based classes to yoga-themed talks, with, in between, snack times stacked with naturally-prepared treats and musical performances. All the activities are free, but all donations received will go to assisting the people of Nepal.

Yoga Day has also had the support of the Formentera Council, which provided logistical assistance in addition to help designing brochures and posters and paying for T-shirts given to Yoga Day participants. The total cost was roughly 3,500 euros.

Next Saturday, June 11, the Formentera Council's Office of Sport will put on the island's very first athletics day for school-age children. As CiF sports councillor Jordi Vidal reported, three municipal athletics clubs –Sant Joan, Sant Josep and Formentera– will gather in the Antoni Blanc sports centre for the event.

Vidal said there would be activities to develop cooperation, equality and camaraderie – “all crucial in sports,” he maintained. “Not only are these values that sports and athletics help cement, but they are ones the Council works to enstill in our local athletes.” As proof, Vidal pointed to a document drafted by the Council earlier this year on values in sports. Saturday's activities begin at 11.00am and go till 4.30pm. There will be a lunch break taken in two turns. A total of 75 children aged five to ten and from both Eivissa and Formentera are scheduled to participate. Entry is free and open to the public.  

 

The Formentera Council's Office of Sports has announced that this Saturday, May 28, it will host a dodgeball tournament in the Antoni Blanc sports centre. Two hundred people have already signed up to take part, with categories ranging from peewee for the youngest to two teams for grown-ups. It will be the first ever such tournament on the island. Dodgeball in Spain (known in Catalan and Spanish as datchball) was developed as an educational sport by a school teacher in the Spanish region of Aragon. The game, which is designed to impart values like effort and teamwork, involves players from two co-ed teams lobbing three foam balls at each other,