A kids club which grew out of an ambition to get young people away from their phone and tv screens to explore new things through arts and crafts is about to celebrate its third year and is looking for helpers.
Tom’s Club, a group for 7-12 year olds based at St Thomas’s Church, Featherstone will celebrate its third birthday on February 22.
It was set up and is run by PCC member, Andrew Edwards and his wife, Dawn, with a start up grant of £500 from the Bishop of Wakefield, the Rt Revd Tony Robinson and support from St Thomas's CE Junior School. It now continues through council grants and a regular £2 subscription for its members.
The club runs every Sunday from 5.45pm -7pm for arts and crafts, there’s regular baking session in the church kitchen, an annual sponsored walk to raise money for church, a games day and an annual summer trip. Last year they took a coachload of 48 children and parents to Scarborough for the day, this year they want to go to the Forbidden Garden at Leyburn.
Each week’s craft activity has a topical theme - it was planets this week - and the children are taken into church for key festivals. Pictured left and right, Harvey, 13, - wearing his Tom's Club shirt - gets to grips with painting his planets while, left, Lydia is busy aligning hers.
“We just wanted to get the kids off their telephones, computers and Ipads to make things. Many of them will never have done traditional arts and crafts and we wanted to open that up to them,” said Andrew.
Tom’s club has around 12-15 young people coming on a regular basis and has 24 on its books.
If you can help, call Andrew on 07943 161771 or email: Andrew.edwards3@talktalk.net