Crowhurst Play Group and Crowhurst Youth Club

At the club’s meeting on 20th February President Dave Miles introduced
a previous guest and donation recipient, Glenys Cornwall, the manager of
Crowhurst Play Group, and Tracy Hoad, the Treasurer of the Crowhurst Youth
Club. In August, last year, Glenys was presented with a donation towards the
cost of building additional storage for the playgroup which has relocated to
more spacious and suitable accommodation.               
The building was once used by the youth club but, with the retirement of
the Youth Leader in January 2017, it was abandoned and then vandalised.
Restoration work had been undertaken through the youth club committee but the
existing storage was inadequate, hence the request for help. Senlac made a
donation towards the cost and in the meantime an application was submitted to
District for a matching grant and subsequently approved. Dave said he was very
pleased to be able to present Glenys with the additional sum. Glenys said, “The
group has now increased from 18 in August to 21 now and the additional storage,
which has now been completed, is invaluable. With the spring approaching we are
looking at the garden and for that we need outside storage for the bikes, games
and other equipment and we will put the additional money towards this. We are
so grateful for the support Rotary has given.”
The Crowhurst Youth Club Committee had also submitted a request for
financial assistance which had been agreed by RC Senlac. President Dave
presented the donation augmented by a District grant to Tracy who said, “The current
Youth Club Committee was formed in December 2017 which set itself a number of
priorities with the aim of providing a suitable safe space for children and
young people of Crowhurst and to provide much needed additional community space
for the village. Our determination to see this through came from the feedback
from Neighbourhood Plan surveys and consultations which were held with the
children and young people in Crowhurst…. Their wish was to have a Junior &
Senior Youth Club in the village running in their own venue.” The project has
been supported by the Parish Council and financial assistance has been obtained
from a variety of sources to help restore the premises and bring it up to
required standards. Work started in early 2018, rewiring, repairs and
redecoration were completed and by August it was sufficiently ready for the
Playgroup to use. Money has also been raised to install new widows and renovate
the exterior but more work is needed to replace the heating system, repair
flooring, renovate the kitchen and toilets and provide a disabled toilet.
Tracey continued, “…the committee wrote asking for help towards the renovation
of our kitchen and disabled toilet but our main priorities at present is the
heating and it is particularly urgent as the old system is inadequate, costly
and does not heat the building sufficiently to provide a warm environment for
children, young and elderly people in the cold weather, This has been
highlighted as Playgroup have been using the building regularly. We have applied
to Rother District Council for a Community Grant to go towards the cost of this
and are planning fund raising events to help towards the cost”.
The initiative has widened the range of community facilities available
in Crowhurst. There are regular users including the Short Mat Bowls Club,
Scouts, Beavers and the Crowhurst Playgroup who are currently using the
building three days a week and are planning to provide a Monday to Friday
service from Easter. The Junior Youth Club restarted on 16th January with a
newly appointed Youth Leader, Hannah, who is an experienced Youth Worker and is
ably supported with a number of village volunteers. The committee is currently
planning to open a Friday evening Senior Club and is in the process of
interviewing a Youth Leader to take these sessions.