Gamlingay (main menu) Service and Utilities In the May 2000 Issue Junior Gazette Copy received to late for this month - repeat of April page Leading page Village Diary News from St Mary's Church Services - Gamlingay, Everton and Hatley St George News from the Baptists Community Corner Parish Council News Not even your name is safe! Parish Council AGM Reports to the Parish Council Youth Club Planning Report Cemetry and Playing Fields Pets Corner Gazette AGM Names and Nicknames Security Green Wellie Letters What’s On?

YOUTH CLUB A Report to the Parish Council by Richard Watson This report aims to reflect back on what has been a year of change for the youth club, a year where we have said good-bye to a group that have been with us for 7 years and hello to a brand new group of young people wanting to use the facility. The year has again been a busy one for the club and it has been one that has seen a lot of change, just before the summer holidays we noticed a steady decline in the numbers attending and, with this in mind we approached the village college with a proposal to run a lunch time club for year six students who were about to leave the school, this idea was accepted by the school and I gave an assembly to all year six students telling them about the sessions that we hoped to run for the five weeks prior to the holidays. It was decided to run a series of one-hour sessions with a programme and set themes for the sessions (just as at youth club) and admission was to be based on a list of students provided by the school. These sessions proved to be a great success with nearly all the year six students attending, activities offered included: Arts and Crafts, Discussions, TV and Video and the usual club activities such as Pool, Table Tennis, etc. We spent a lot of time with this group talking and finding out the kinds of things that they would like to do if they were to become regulars at the club. From those discussions a list was drawn up to develop a programme. Lots of promises were made at the end of the sessions, and many young people said they would attend both during the summer holidays and when we reopened in September. Unfortunately those promises of attendance never happened and we later found that they had been discouraged by the older group from attending! We then began an intensive effort to get some new blood into the club, Carol Glass and I have spent many weeks wandering the streets of the village handing out information about the club, putting up posters, etc. and generally talking to people about our work. These efforts are at last beginning to pay off and I am pleased to report that we have a group or sixteen young people (all new faces) who are regularly attending. I feel sure that there are many more out there, despite the fact the we found the streets empty most Monday and Thursday nights and the future for the club is looking good. Holiday activities: Once again this year Carol and I spent a considerable amount of time redecorating the club, and with the help of the members we repainted the coffee bar area and the kitchen, with the young people adding their own styles to the design. It now looks very bright and more young person friendly. We again ran a trip to the Gauntlet Motorbike project during the summer holidays and a few young people from the village attended along with others from the Bassingbourn area, this trip always proves popular and I hope to repeat it in the coming year. Other activities: I hope now that we have recruited a new group to the club that we can become more involved in the crime reduction initiative that is currently happening in the village, this is a worthwhile piece of work that needs the contribution of the young people who live here. Sonia Dutton who works for CAYC is currently approaching some of the ex members of the club to see if they are interested in becoming involved in some project work with her, this project would be based around a village appraisal, with the work being carried out by the young people themselves. Finally I would like to thank the Parish Council for its continued support of the youth club, and I hope that we will continue to work together to support the young people of the village in the future.