Harvington

FUN DAY: The Youth Project Fun Day held at the start of half term was a great success. Forty three children attended and thoroughly enjoyed learning circus skills under the expert guidance of Kevins Community Circus (a group from Selly Oak who have worked with youth leader Neil Dunlop in his previous job) and doing drama with Riverside Travelling Theatre Workshop. This is a particularly interesting group of young people, all practising Christians, based at Riverside Church and working over an extensive area with children and young people to whom they seek, through drama, to introduce to Christian ideals and examine the possibility of living a life based on those ideals. Some of the group (a few) are paid helpers but many of the others are young people taking a year out before going to University or embarking on another career and they give their services freely and, if Saturday was anything to go by, very enthusiastically. By 4.30pm on Saturday, the village hall was full of parents and other supportive onlookers waiting to see what the children had achieved. The 'show' got off to a good start when the majority of them made a dramatic entrance on stilts! This was followed by sketches based on the idea of A Day in a Life in Harvington in which everybody had a part and the performance concluded with further sketches by the young tutors showing the kind of thing they do with older participants. Tea for all (kindly provided by a number of well-wishers) was then served and the event was rounded off in a most friendly and congenial way. It is good to hear from Neil that a similar Fun Day will be arranged before very long in response to many requests, but the next event is being planned for the benefit of the older teenagers. This sounds very promising and young readers are advised to watch for details.