Over Christmas TAYCT hosted the first Snowball event at The Dolphins Hall which was attended by 45 young people. The event was hugely successful with our young people receiving a full sit-down Christmas Meal, and a Disco. This event was entirely free to the young people and was staffed by TAYCT and a host of volunteers. The meal was planned, prepared and cooked by Steve Scott, Sally Walker & Matt Tancock who did such a wonderful job and we are so grateful for the time and energy that they put into it. Staff and volunteers set up the room beautifully, served meals and threw themselves into the rather mammoth clear up operation afterwards. 3 of our volunteers (Leanne, Megan & Freya) were from our older youth session and came along to help serve food and tidy away. We were all really impressed by them on the night as it was quite the challenge. What made the event so special was the support that we received from local businesses and the community with loans of crockery, table cloths, pots and pans, donations of flowers for the tables and tasty puddings. Without them it would not have been possible and we would like to extend a huge thank you to: Calcot Manor, Hobbs Bakery, Scentiments, Holford Arms, The Close Hotel, The Royal Oak.
As if this wasn’t enough we were also able to arrange a wonderful day at Highgrove Traditional Crafts for 10 young people who had the opportunity to have fun learning new sewing skills and make some beautiful Christmas crafts. We provided a mini bus (thank you to Toby Bell at SWR) to transport the young people over to Highgrove and then Steve Scott once again stepped up and made a hot lunch for them all which was taken over for them to enjoy along with hot drinks and healthy snacks. We look forward to continuing to partner with Highgrove Traditional Crafts in 2023 and supporting Tetbury young people to access this fantastic opportunity right on our doorstep.
Here at TAYCT we are excited for 2023 and plan to continue to develop and expand the support services that we offer in order to meet the needs of the vibrant and growing community in Tetbury. We continue to run 2 youth sessions a week which are very busy and free to all young people (please follow us on social media for full details of sessions) and are looking ahead to offering a third weekly session to meet demand from our young people and families. We will be continuing to put on events over the school holidays and have some really exciting opportunities coming up.
As always we would welcome anyone wishing to do some volunteering whether it’s being an extra adult at the occasional youth session or any other role you think you might be able to offer. We absolutely rely on volunteers to run this wonderful service and are always in need of extra people to ensure it can continue. Please contact lisa.hoult@tayct.org.uk if you think you may be able to help.
We wish everyone a safe and healthy 2023
The TAYCT Team