September 2010

On 30th September 2010, Solent Youth Action will be running a Conservation Taster Day in Copythorne.

Are you interested in Conservation and Wildlife?

Do you want to work in a team?

Do you want to learn new skills?

Do you want to gain some work experience and give something back to your community through Volunteering?

Most importantly do you want to have some fun?

If the answer to any of the above questions is yes then we need you!

As you walk down Lymington High Street, you'd be forgiven for not noticing the work that Solent Youth Action's vinvolved project volunteers have been doing over the past three months.

That's because they have been working tirelessly in the gardens of the United Reformed Church to clear what can only be described as the Jumanji jungle in preparation for it to become a community garden, complete with sensory garden, labyrinth, allotments, and play area.

Hidden behind the church near the basics bank hut, volunteers, church members and Elizabeth Lewis; a local councillor who has donated a whopping £500 to the project, have been clearing trees, saplings, brambles, weeds, nettles and the odd bone or two (yuck).

This project has been in the making for over a year now, and after dotting the i’s and crossing the t’s, volunteers have been able to work on a project that they have had significant involvement in planning, and even more significant involvement demolishing (the various large trees, that is).

Solent Youth Action's Eastleigh office played host to a somewhat colourful workshop in August when vinvolved project volunteers were invited to design and spray up a ma-husive canvas board with professional graffiti paints.

Working with the incredible urban artist, Rae Makepeace, volunteers learnt how to use professional graffiti spray paints responsibly, designing their own personal canvases to take home with them at the end of the day.

After much deliberation it was decided that the oversized canvas should be donated to a local children's centre, taking the form of a colourful circus scene complete with clowns and custard pies, illustrated with perfection by Rae.

Sprayed by their own fair hands, the volunteers learnt how to shade and blend the paints on the canvas, creating a truly fabulous piece of art.

On 19th August, a group of Solent Youth Action volunteers spent the day in Curdridge at South Hants Pony and Horse Protection Group.

South Hants Pony and Horse Protection Group are a registered charity manned by volunteers who are dedicated to the rescue, rehabilitation and re-homing of neglected, abused and unwanted equines in the South Hampshire area.

The day started out by getting the volunteers to prepare the stables and putting out hay bails for the horses and ponies that ranged from Cobs to Shetland ponies. Once completed it was time to put the leads on the horses and one by one the horses were led down to the stables which the volunteers enjoyed.

Smoky, Quest and Strider was then treated to a luxury brush and clean from the volunteers- pampered ponies! A particular favorite was Smokey the Welsh Section A horse, he was 14 hands high and had lovely brown skin that was well behaved. After a quick refreshing down pour it was time to say farewell and put the horses back into the field after their spa treatment.

As the summer draws to a close, volunteers from the Take Action project revel from a successful season on the SYA allotment.

Despite the cold winter, the allotment has produced a fruitful crop of a variety of vegetables from sweetcorn, cabbages, cauliflower and potatoes to lettuce, cucumber, peppers, onions and beetroot as well as Solent Youth Action's very own melons! The autumn will see the harvest of pumpkins, in time for Halloween as well as root vegetables, such as: carrots, swedes and parsnips over the next few months.

As well as harvesting the vegetables, the volunteers have taken part in projects to distribute them to Sheltered Housing across the City and Homeless shelters.