Welcome to The Hunslet Club August Newsletter 2023! This little newsletter is our way of spreading recent news and mentioning exciting new developments for September 2023. Here you can catch up on everything we did and achieved in August 2023. Our newsletter comes out at the start of each month, and you can read our previous newsletter here.
July 26th, 2023 – September 1st, 2023
In July we kicked off our six-week Summer Activity Camp! Each day is different from the next as each day is made up of around six different activity sessions for each child. Activities include baking, dance, football, dodgeball, outdoor play, Rugby, boxing, arts, and crafts, singing and more. We also have different onsite facilities our campers can use such as a gym, hair and beauty salon, main hall, modern games room with consoles and an arcade machine, outdoor 4G pitches, boxing gym and more.
We’ve had a busy six weeks, however, one of our favourite moments must be our Mini Olympics. Our staff members never failed to get involved and were at the mercy of our campers when the wheelbarrow race started. Why? Because our staff members and volunteers were the wheelbarrows. The laughter that was present on the field was unparalleled.
We couldn’t run our Summer Activity Camp without the support of the Leeds Community Foundation, which helped fund this camp to help facilitate the growth of young people.
Our community is incredible, and we will never stop saying that. In August, we had a fantastic donation of food from Tesco. Not every young person can afford three square meals a day, especially during the School Holidays. Donations like this allow us to provide a set meal to the campers who need it the most.
Thank you to the generosity of the team at Tesco, our campers absolutely loved their meals.
We had another wonderful donation from Kelly, the Hunslet Morrisons Community Champion, and the baking supplies were put to good use almost instantly. The donation provided our campers and youth clubbers with the opportunity to bake something special, which they got to enjoy at the end.
It is always a rewarding experience to see the smiles on young people’s faces as they get to eat something they created. Baking/cooking also gives young people the chance to learn new skills, from following recipes to understanding the basics of cooking.
Thank you, Kelly, for your amazing donation.
Tuesday, 8th August 2023
Our activity camp is a notoriously fun place for young people in Leeds and the surrounding areas, but did you know we also have educational guest speakers that visit? During our Summer Activity Camp, we were lucky enough to have two guest speakers visit from Wakefield West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service Fire Station who discussed water safety procedures.
Wakefield Fire Station cover ‘35 square miles incorporating a diverse community of over 91,951 people’.
The talk kept our campers engaged in an easy-to-understand, but vital manner, as they discussed crucial procedures and actions to take if they or someone they know falls in the water. Our visitors from the fire service also taught our campers how to help someone who has fallen in the water, by teaching them how to use a water safety rope.
Wednesday, 9th August
On the 9th of August, Hunslet Litter Picks and Library hosted a Children’s Litter Pick and started at the Hunslet Community Hub and Library. We gathered some eager young people, along with some of our staff members and joined the hunt for litter.
We are incredibly proud of our young people who gathered 14 bags of litter collectively. Well done to everyone involved.
Wednesday, 9th August
In April 2023, we heard the news that our application to the Tesco Community Grants Scheme was a success. All that was left to do was put the power in the hands of our community. Many of our community members acted, and when they purchased something from a Tesco store, they were given a token to vote for the project they wanted the most.
The Project we put forward was the Hunslet Youth Club Cooking Hub which will enable young people of South Leeds and the surrounding areas to learn how to plan and cook a healthy meal, which will encourage a healthy lifestyle.
Thanks to the support of our community, we won, which means we will have vital funds that we can put towards kitchen and cooking equipment which will be useful for our youth club cooking sessions, daytime catering lessons and evening tuckshop.
Thank you again to Tesco for this opportunity, and to our amazing community for supporting us.
Thursday, 10th August
In August, Lyndon SGB generously donated material that our youth club could use to create a planter. While building this planter, our youth club members had the opportunity to learn more about construction through a hands-on approach.
Thanks to the combination of the generous donation by Lyndon SGB and the hard work of our youth club, our garden now features a stunning planter.
Tuesday, 15th August
It is difficult to have challenging conversations with young people, however, those conversations are vital for many, especially when the topic revolves around attitudes and violence towards women. Our Senior youth club had guest speakers who talked through this difficult topic in an engaging and informative manner.
Wednesday, 16th August
The Lionesses won against Australia on the 16th of August, and some of our activity campers watched the action unfold. The room was buzzing with energy as many, for the first time, saw independent, talented, and determined women playing football on such a huge platform.
The cheers that erupted in the room at the end of the game were incredible! It was fantastic to see so many young people enjoying their time here and watching something that means so much to them.
Friday, 18th August
On Friday, 18th August, we had two special visitors on site. Jason Robinson and Mike Tindall visited The Hunslet Club.
Wednesday, 23rd August
We had even more guest speakers in our Senior youth club this month, this time to talk about drugs, gangs and knives, and how young people can stay safe when faced with challenging situations.
Sunday, 27th August 2023
To celebrate the long bank holiday weekend, The Hunslet Club and Hunslet ARLFC hosted a bank holiday barbecue at The Oval. The festivities included music, a BBQ and a petting farm, which families and children alike loved.
Thank you to those who joined us for this bank holiday celebration.
Commencing Tuesday, 29th August 2023
After the bank holiday celebration, we jumped right back into our activity camp on the Tuesday! One final week of fun, friends, and food, and it was a fantastic week. We are incredibly proud that we can offer a safe space where young people can thrive throughout the school holiday.
Join us for our Summer Gala on Saturday, 2nd September 2023
Unfortunately, the horrendous British weather postponed our Summer Gala plans, but our fantastic team and vendors rallied together to arrange a new date. Now we can celebrate the end of the Summer Holidays in style with a bigger and better Summer Gala here at The Hunslet Club.
Please support this community event as funds raised go towards different sections of our youth organisation, thank you.
New timetable
We have new additions to our timetable in September! Be sure to pop into The Hunslet Club to grab our new timetable for free. Alternatively, check out our timetable on our website for updates.
October 2023
Our free youth clubs have various workshops scheduled for October and November, including our fireworks safety talk.
As mentioned in our August Hunslet Club Newsletter, we have had some fantastic guest speakers. Our guest speakers visit our youth clubs/activity camps to give presentations and practical sessions to our young people. Contact our team today if you/your business would like to talk to our young people about a specific topic.
