Summer holidays: Free entry to pools for children and young people

Children and young people have suffered particularly from the restrictions of the Corona pandemic in recent months - especially with regard to leisure activities. The district and municipalities have therefore jointly decided to use the Corona fines to give children and young people in Waldeck-Frankenberg free admission to all swimming pools in the district during the summer holidays.

Due to administrative offences such as violations of the mask requirement or quarantine regulations, the district has issued fines amounting to about 60,000 euros in the past months. "We now want to put this money to good use and use it to finance the offer that children and young people up to 18 years of age can visit the swimming pools free of charge during the summer holidays," said District Administrator Dr Reinhard Kubat. This was also agreed with the mayors of the cities and municipalities at today's service meeting.

"While the elderly were very much in the social spotlight, children and young people were somewhat under the radar, even though they were severely limited in their social contacts due to distance learning and lack of sports and recreational opportunities". That is why the idea came up to use the collected Corona fines to compensate the young people a little for the restrictions and to help them resume social contacts. The proposal has met with broad approval from the district's political bodies. The mayors have also reacted positively to the idea.

During the Corona pandemic, it was above all the young members of our society who were strongly affected by the restrictions. A recent survey by the district's sports and youth work department in cooperation with the church youth work in Lichtenfels showed that about 20 percent of the children and young people suffered massively from the restrictions: Above all, the lack of social contacts due to closed recreational facilities and also due to distance learning at schools had had a lasting development-inhibiting effect on the psyche of the young people. According to the report, many of them also have problems re-establishing themselves in groups and classes, and social fears have visibly increased during the pandemic. Families with children have not only been burdened financially by homeschooling and the provision of care, but also generally. In quite a few families, this time has also been very conflict-ridden.