Creativity, exciting themes, decent funding and wonderful volunteers have all helped charges around the diocese organise imaginative and well-attended holiday clubs this summer.
Variety spiced up the lives of all those young people who went along to St Columba’s, Largs, St John’s, Dumfries, and St Margaret’s, Newlands, for summer activities in the past few weeks and organisers hope their experience may encourage other churches to follow suit in years to come.
At St Margaret’s, Newlands, there is always a theme which opens up lots of possibilities for different activities. In the recent past they have run holiday clubs entitled Ship of Dreams and Pyramid of Puzzles but this year they came up with the intriguing Cabinet of Curiosities, offered to primary school aged children for two hours each day over a five-day period during the first week of the school summer holidays.
Rector, the Rev Canon Gordon Fyfe, who played Professor Theophilus, said that as with the previous three annual summer holiday clubs at St Margaret’s, it was created and offered by members of the congregation. Each day was structured to include songs, games, stories, snacks, drama and crafts that reflected the daily theme and the week saw a good number of children in attendance.
“This year’s theme was chosen as a creative and engaging way of sharing the accounts of some of Jesus’ miracles; beginning with the first (water into wine) and ending with the raising of Lazarus,” Gordon explained. “Over the five days the children met the storyteller who began their tale using the object of the day from Professor Theophilus’ cabinet of curiosities.”
“A good number of children attended throughout the week,” he said. “Some were new and others were from the congregation or had returned from previous annual holiday clubs. These were joined on the last day by members of their family for a lunch following the presentation of their diplomas. The club was a joyful way of reaching out to the surrounding community.”
Also following a theme for their holiday club were St Columba’s, Largs, which has run a club for around twelve years. This year, the church had the added difficulty of having to adapt after the roof was blown off the church hall in storm Éowyn, but they offered a marquee to protect everyone from the elements.
Rector, the Rev Mark Goodman, chose Jonah and the whale as a way of helping children to think about being reluctant to do something you’ve been asked to do; feelings of guilt – Jonah thought the storm was his fault; how God gave Jonah a second chance; the message that was given to Jonah to pass on to the people of Nineveh; and God’s power to forgive.
“Mark chatted about emotions in the story, we sang our home composed club song on the theme with Mark playing his guitar, and we lay down and had quiet time praying, “ said Hilary Moran, who helped organise the club. “Initially the children played group games, started by our experienced leader Linda Young. One of these used blown up pictures of creatures, buildings and people and they had to guess what they were. Word searches, colouring in sheets and crafts followed. The most enjoyable outdoor game was rounders, but we kept on swapping around the teams, so it kept moving and was shorter.”
Funding came from Cash for Kids and Morrisons supermarket this year, and Tesco has supported the club in the past.
Hilary explained that good forward planning and a great team of helpers always added to the club running smoothly. “We had a kitchen team that produced fruit snacks and lunch and we advertised through our town Facebook page mainly and our own club page where I took the bookings through Messenger.
“The addition of secondary school helpers was great this year as helper numbers were down. On the last day families were invited to lunch and cake and the kids had a certificate given. It was much enjoyed by all who came.”
Holiday clubs at St John’s, Dumfries, are always a joyous affair, and this year around 47 children from P1-P7 attended, a mixture of church families, primary schools where they undertake chaplaincy work, families who may be members of other churches in the area, or none. Several Dumfries churches offer Holiday Clubs of one sort or another, and some of the children attend more than one.
“Our clubs are usually based around a film and this year’s theme was Toy Story, which then allows links to be made between that and the Bible to create the focused teaching material,” said Annabelle Guthrie, leader of the holiday club. Some of the Bible stories covered included Jesus healing the Blind Man, the parable of the lost sheep and Judas betraying Jesus.
“The children participate in a range of activities including games and crafts all linked to the theme (think cowboy hats, piggy banks, rockets and yo-yos) and also enjoy a sports day, carnival afternoon with bouncy slide, and chocolate fountain,” said Annabelle. “We finish with a family showcase which allows us to present what the children have been up to during the week.”
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