Praise for Pendle's Young People

3:20pm Friday 28th March 2008

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I was out doing my weekly Walkabout this week in your fine town, and as I was driving round the one way system past Colne Police Station I spotted a big red elephant.

It turns out that the Lancashire Fire and Rescue station was holding a charity car wash event, which had been organised by young people enrolled on the Princes Trust's 12 week course 'Team Programme'. The elephant, aptly named Welephant, is the Fire Service's mascot but I don't know who was underneath the costume!.

Anyway, I spoke to Adam Foster who is the Lancashire Fire and Rescue's Programme Support Worker for the course and he told me a bit about why they were getting their feet wet on an already bleak day!

"As part of the course, the young people are expected to carry out a team challenge during weeks 10/11.

"They decided to work with a couple of groups - children from the Little Tigers nursey group and residents of the Peel Gardens residential care home."

In the two hours they were washing cars and vans, they raised £60.

The money went towards the cost of taking the respective groups out on a day trip. On Wednesday 26 March, the ten toddlers from Little Tigers were taken to Wacky Warehouse in Rawtenstall, where they played and had lunch provided.

Adam said, "The young people on the course really enjoyed taking the little 'uns out, there were 2 nursery staff with us as well as myself, Jim Hollingworth (Lancashire Fire and Rescue's Team Leader for the Prince's Trust) and a student who is on placement with us."

I asked Adam how the young people chose who would benefit as part of the Team Challenge.

"During week 5 and 6, they took part in a community project at the nursery where they took part in a massive clean-up so it seemed right to continue the good work with that group.

"They choose a group or people who perhaps are less fortunate than others or who would benefit the most from their involvement."

In addition to the toddlers' day out, the Princes Trust youngsters arranged to take 5 residents of Peel Gardens out for a day trip to Barden Mill on Thursday 27 March, where they spent time browsing the shops and also had lunch. According to Adam that was a bit more a challenge for the young people.

"Peel Garden residents have dementia of various levels and this was hard for some of the young people to deal with. Some of these are the kind of kids who might snigger at someone who is suffering with this sort of mental illness but the experience has done them a world of good.

"They were very tolerant after being asked what they names were for maybe the hundredth time, but the experience has taught them about patience, understanding and tolerance."

The course finishes this week.