Ölver camp raises funds for a new sports hall

An annual coffee sale and fundraising runners in the Reykjavik Marathon will support the construction of a new sports hall at Ölver summer camp beneath Hafnarfjall in Borgarfjörður, Morgunblaðið reports.

The coffee sale will take place on Sunday, August 23. Several runners are also raising money for the project by participating in the Reykjavik Marathon on Saturday.

Gríma Katrín Ólafsdóttir of the Christian youth organisation KFUM og K, which runs the camp, said the existing sports hall was old and unusable. It has not been used for the past two or three years.

The planned building will be larger than the current hall and include space for table tennis and indoor games, as well as toilets, showers and other facilities. Its floor will also be marked for brennó, a game played at Ölver every day during the summer and described by Gríma as the camp’s national sport.

“The dream is to begin construction next year if the detailed plan and funding allow,” Gríma said.

Nearly 500 children aged eight to 16 stay at the camp each year, divided into ten groups of 46. The final group of the summer stayed there last week.

Gríma said attendance had been very strong this summer. The organisation also hopes to expand the main Ölver building in the future, with a larger dining room, kitchen and more sleeping accommodation. Plans for that project are ready, but work will not be considered until funding has been raised for the sports hall.

The coffee sale will run from 1pm to 5pm and feature a traditional cake buffet, including traybakes, cinnamon rolls, open sandwiches and meringue cakes.

Admission is free for children aged nine and under. Children aged 10 to 15 pay 2,000 Icelandic krónur, while everyone else pays 4,000 krónur for coffee and cakes. More than 300 people have attended in recent years, with numerous volunteers involved in organising the event.