Much to the surprise and delight of many, Sophie, Countess of Wessex, took part in a lively game of dodgeball with children at a YMCA camp at the Field of Dreams on Tuesday afternoon.
With her blue, grey and white print dress fluttering in the wind, she declared “What could possibly go wrong?” as she lined up with the kids on her team to take on their opposition.
Sophie, together with her husband Prince Edward, arrived in Grand Cayman Monday evening on a Royal visit. After they touched down, the couple attended a reception at the governor’s residence.
While Prince Edward headed to Little Cayman to meet with staff and supporters of the Central Caribbean Marine Institute, Sophie had a morning engagement with members of 100 Women in Finance at The Ritz-Carlton for an “intimate conversation around empowerment in the workplace and beyond”.
In it to win it
Then it was off to the Field of Dreams for a fun-filled afternoon.
There, with steely resolve, the Countess clutched her ball as she set her sights on her opponents, aiming for the win, but in the end, she laughed, “I know they will still claim victory.”
While she waited for her turn to throw, one young boy walked over to the Countess and gently bowed before her.
Prior to putting her dodgeball prowess on display, Sophie tried her hand at archery, eliciting some tips from the kids on hand.
As she drew her arrow in the bow, she listened intently to the guidance provided by the YMCA instructor. But, when her arrow didn’t hit the target, she shrugged good-naturedly, saying, “Oh, well.”
The children learning archery offered some constructive criticism, advising her that if she had aimed higher and more to the left, the wind would have taken the arrow to its mark.
Garth Arch, chairman of the YMCA board, welcomed the Countess’s visit to the camp.
“It’s a very special moment for the YMCA to have a Royal Highness visit the Y camp, it was amazing to see her interacting with the children. She even played dodgeball with them. It was an exciting time for us, and it’s one that we’ll always remember,” he said.
Arch said he was surprised that the Countess got into the dodgeball game and played with the young campers.
Camper Elena Urbina said seeing Countess Sophie in real life was exciting.
She said she thought the Royal visitor was “very pretty” and she enjoyed showing her how to make ice cream.
Wall of welcome messages
As she toured the YMCA clubhouse, Sophie was greeted with a wall of welcome messages made by the young attendees of the camp.
As she read the messages, the Countess said they were all “very nice”.
YMCA art instructor Amrita Debnath said the children were told to create some artwork to welcome their visitor, using the theme ‘Royal Heart’.
Debnath said she was happy to see how the kids responded to the project and the lovely work they produced.
“Some of the kids wanted to [say] welcome to Cayman Islands. They wanted to share their feelings… how happy and excited they were. They [made] lovely, colourful hearts with the collage and construction paper, with different styles and they made some patterns, which are very connected with our Cayman Islands. You can see the waves, you can see the fish, you can see the dominoes here in the pattern,” Debnath said.
She also painted artwork featuring Cayman’s roosters, which was presented, along with a bouquet, to the Countess.
Sophie also tried her hand at making ice cream.
“That was hard,” she said after finished making vanilla ice cream, which she sampled and shared with the children who were also learning how to make ice cream.
YMCA staffer Franchesa Mendez-Borden could not contain her excitement at meeting the Countess.
She said the team at YMCA had been preparing for the Royal visit for weeks.
“I’ve always wanted to meet them,” she said, “and just having her experience with the kids and having to make ice cream, it was a dream come true because all the kids were excited, and they felt something similar to me.”
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