Welcome to The Hunslet Club October Newsletter! This little newsletter is our way of spreading our recent news and also mentions our planned events for November. Here you can catch up on everything we did and achieved in October. Our newsletter comes out on the 4th of each month, and you can check our previous newsletter here.
The Hunslet Club Halloween Party is an annual event here in South Leeds, which is getting better each year. Thanks to our amazing events coordinator, this one was no exception. On Friday, October 28th 2022, at 6 pm, people came through the doors dressed as everything from witches to devils and everything in between. We also got to see someone dressed as Nezuko.
Our Halloween Party featured something for the whole family! On stage, we had stunning performances from our talented young people, guided by our wonderful dance instructor Amber. We had fancy dress competitions for different age ranges, a meet and greet with a dinosaur, bingo with a cash prize, a raffle, henna, lucky dip and a candy floss stand.
The Hunslet Club Rogues put on a spectacular Haunted Hospital Scare Tour upstairs at The Hunslet Club! The queue was never short, and many guests returned for more than one tour.
Our amazing staff and volunteers operated the stalls and ensured the night ran smoothly. We couldn’t do this without the help of our volunteers, youth workers and staff. We can’t put into words how hard our volunteers and staff members worked to ensure that everyone had a memorable time.
We were pleasantly surprised by an unexpected call on Friday, October 28th, as Fresh Pastures in Leeds offered to donate 1,500 cartons of milk to The Hunslet Club. We always appreciate donations that benefit our young people, as it is a great way to show that the community is there for them. Thank you to the team at Fresh Pastures for unpacking all the milk cartons and also for bringing them into our club while the Halloween decorations were being put up.
We also had two new team members join the Hunslet Club, which you can read about here. We love it when new people join The Hunslet Club, whether new employees, volunteers or young people.
Our Rugby Activity Camp took place from the 24th to the 26th of October, and on the last day, a celebrity guest dropped by to surprise our young athletes. Professional Rugby League Player – Leeds Rhino’s very own Blake Austin. Blake dropped by and took the time to take a picture with each young person who wanted a photo; he answered questions, even went one step further, and taught our activity camp members tackling and kicking skills.
Moments like this make us happy, as that experience could not be replicated. Talking to someone with so much experience and passion will hopefully ignite a passion in our young players that will lead them to their own passion.
Special thanks to Chris Boyce, our Sports Manager, for arranging this appearance!
Along with our October Rugby Activity Camp, we had our Football and October Half-Term Activity Camp. In total, over 385 young people came to our activity camps.
We had many activities throughout the week, from baking and dancing to team building in the main hall. Over on the field for the Football Activity Camp, we saw natural talent come to the surface as our young players learnt new skills, played matches and made friends.
Our activity camps gave young people a place to go during the half-term school holidays. Many families do not have the opportunity to venture on holiday, but our activity camps can provide a holiday feel. The Hunslet Club is where these young people can make memories, participate in fun activities and even make a cake.
An exciting new development is happening at The Hunslet Club, and we unveiled the first part in October 2022. The Parklane Foundation worked on a room at our club and transformed it into a space our young people could express their creativity through textiles, fashion design and more.
Now, we are looking for textile and sewing equipment to properly furnish our new room. We want to give young people in the Hunslet and local Leeds area the opportunity to learn new skills and express their creativity through design and textiles. You never know, we could have the next Coco Chanel or Christian Dior in our midst, but they just need an affordable space to get started.
On October 22nd, 2022, some members of our youth club ventured to Ingleton Falls to complete a sponsored walk, and we could not be more proud of them. The walk was a fantastic experience, and they also raised money for the youth club. The grand total was £535, which we are incredibly proud of them for raising.
Our free youth clubs provide the young people in our local community with a safe space to socialise, have fun and learn new skills. Without funding or sponsored walks like this, we could not offer our youth clubs for free.
We have seen first-hand how much our weekday youth clubs can benefit young people and their development. Therefore, we had an exciting new development in October. We happily announced on October 14th that our Junior Youth Club is now running on a Sunday. This Sunday Youth Club is great for ages 8 to 12, from 11:30 am to 2:30 pm. We believe this development will benefit our young people as it gives them somewhere safe to go and socialise.
The West Yorkshire Police came to The Hunslet Club to give a talk to the Junior Youth Club on the dangers of Fireworks and Bonfire Night. We have been working with them throughout October and the start of November to ensure that the local community, families and young people understand the risks of fireworks and what they can do to stay safe.
Our youth workers are continuing the lessons Louise Poole taught. Our youth workers have given informative talks to local Hunslet young people about the dangers of fireworks. We want to thank the West Yorkshire Police and our local South Leeds Councillors for their continued support in this area.
Our new Volunteer Coordinator, Alex, has introduced a new section to the monthly newsletter, the Volunteer Spotlight. This October 2022, Alex talked to Michael Gill, who has been involved with coaching at The Hunslet Club for over 10 years.
Michael is 50 years young and spent time as a kid going to youth clubs. Michael mentions how he enjoyed going to youth clubs when he was a kid. There was always somebody there for him, looking after him, and he wanted to return that support to a new generation.
You can read the full volunteer spotlight here!
We want to thank our volunteers, local community, staff, West Yorkshire Police and special guests for making our October memorable for our young people. We could not have done even half these events and activities without you. The Hunslet Club prides itself on our commitment to doing more for the community, but we also want to highlight what the community does for us. Together, we can help young people grow, develop and learn new skills. Together we can show them that the community has their back.
We have a lot to look forward to in November:
