At the beginning of August some 45 children attended the first ever St Faith‘s Holiday Club. A week of activities and outings was blessed with fine weather and everyone had a great time.  Churchwarden Joan Tudhope was one of the gallant band of workers, and she writes about her week.

Why did I volunteer?  Joan Tudhope

It was with some reserve, and wondering about my sanity in doing so, that I volunteered to help with the first St. Faith‘s Holiday Club.  Little did I know how it would all turn out.

St. Mary’s Holiday Club has been running for 15 years and Lynne Connolly, who has organised it for some years now, readily agreed to help St. Faith‘s to set up the Club.  She ordered equipment, completed funding applications and undertook the administrative work  for both churches.  Some of the people who helped with groups at St. Mary‘s also helped at St.Faith‘s.

The children were divided into four Groups: Disney, Bugs Life, The Mowglis and Tiggers, according to their ages. The group I was helping with in both churches were 6 and 7 year olds, known as The Mowglis. They were, without exception, delightful, polite, well-behaved children.

The sessions for the week were laid out as activities in the hall in the mornings and trips out in the afternoons. We were very fortunate with the weather in the week the Club was running at St. Faith‘s and Fr. Neil made the Vicarage garden open to all the children so they could eat their lunches outdoors.

The children made masks and clay models, they baked, decorated biscuits, made mobiles, listened to stories, painted pictures, did quizzes, played in the sandpit and on the bouncy castle.  They enjoyed playing games on Chaffers playing fields, visited the Fire Station where they sat in the fire engines, squirted water from the large hoses and dressed up as fire-fighters.

We went on an afternoon out on a double-decker bus to the Botanic Gardens in Southport and had a full day out at Park Hall, near Oswestry, where the fun and activities laid on for families was superb.  The Sports Bus came for an afternoon and they organised lots of games for the groups.

Whenever we were outside the hall the children wore bright red baseball caps with St. Faith‘s Holiday Club printed on the front.  The sight of so many children going out with these brightly-coloured hats on attracted attention and people were genuinely interested in what was going on.  The hats also made it easy for us to recognise the children belonging to us and to make sure we brought the same number of children back as we had taken out.

On the Friday of each week the children did a short presentation to their parents of what they had done for the week; they went home early that day in order to get themselves ready for a barbecue and disco in the evening.

The children had a wonderful time and lots of fun, and we the helpers had an amazing time.  What an experience!  Hard work but every minute well worth the effort to see the pleasure on the children‘s faces and getting to know them.  They all made new friends at Holiday Club as did we.

I have already volunteered to help with both weeks next year - just let anyone try and take my place!  This has been yet another example good example of working together within the United Benefice.

Thank you, children!
 
 

Anne Hartley gets to work	Fr Neil and Judith Skinner in the Vicatage Garden
Jill McElroy and a lunch group	Joan Tudhope at "Play"
Lunchbreak at the Vicarage	Lynne Connolly works with her group

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