Children's camps

[jinnyj]

I had the pleasure of going to Avalon Camps, an amazing children's camp today which is held on the Somerset Levels and it was a hugely humbling experience.

Avalon Camps |

avaloncamps.org.uk

I run the Wessex Area Point to Point Awards evening at the end of every season an although I curse blindly that I will never do it again (I've done 6 now and don't get paid for it - all on my own so it's quite an undertaking). Anyway during the evening I run a raffle and auction that I always run in memory of a person within the Area who has passed away. This year it was in memory of an amazing guy called Jeff Fear who was an owner, trainer and jockey as well as running a meeting for many years. We raised a pretty impressive £1,100 and I asked his family which charity he supported. They suggested Avalon Camps which was set up to give under privileged children from deprived areas in Bristol the chance of a few days away. Jeff loved the charity and even into his 80s was out putting up tents.

So today I went to their sponsors day to present the cheque and every penny goes towards it rather than a CEO's salary. And what an incredible charity. Run entirely by volunteers, it costs £18,000 a year to put on two four day camps a year for these kids many of whom have suffered serious harm (physical and sexual abuse included) in their short lives. Most have never been away from home. The camp is all in tents and they have some wonderful activities all day. To see these children running around today laughing and playing cowboys and Indians (its National Cowboy Day today apparently) was so heart-warming. They get to eat proper home cooked food and just escape from their sink estates albeit briefly. It may only be four days in their lives which they then have to return to but I was just so humbled. The organisers are just incredible in what they do and Jeff Fear was one of the stalwarts from the beginning.

Sadly its a good hour from where I live or I would be signing up to volunteer!

 

[maureen]

Michael Morpurgo and his wife did something similar didn’t they? I was an inner city child from the slums of Birmingham ( not like those poor children, though;we were poor but there was much love) I was greatly affected by going on a camping trip with the Brownies or Girl Guides; the best part of which was the fact we were camped next to a field full of ponies.

 

[jinnyj]

Yes he did thinking about it. But residential rather than camping:

Farms For City Children Team | About Us

Welcome from Clare and Michael Morpurgo, our charity founders. Learn more about the brilliant team that keep Farms For City Children growing.

farmsforcitychildren.org

And it's a much bigger better supported charity too.
I think I am right in saying that one of our forum members has been involved at some stage at the Devon one, but I will let them add their part if they so wish.

 

[Desert Orchid]

In similar vein but nowhere near as extreme, I've mentioned in the past about going away 'with the boys' club' when I was a kid.

It wasn't for underprivileged people as such but it's pretty much how my brothers and I ended up going.

It was a summer camp run by our local Knights of St Columba (cynics might call them Catholic freemasons). Three of my mother's brothers who were members were also childless. I remember my uncles John and William coming up to the house one evening to tell my mother the 'club', as they called it, was organising a summer holiday for the sons of members but they had asked permission to approach my mother because they didn't have sons and extend the offer to her sons and had been granted said permission. We had never had a summer holiday away but that was par for everybody I knew. During my father's fortnight off work we maybe got two or three away-day trips to the seaside but that was it.

This would have been leading up to the summer of 1967 and my mother was more than happy to allow two of us, me and the brother immediately above me, to go. It was to cost £10 per boy for the fortnight to include the transport, full board and accommodation in a school in the destination, sleeping in sleeping bags on camp beds. My mother gave us £5 each pocket money which we in turn handed over and one of the men operated 'the bank', doling out a daily allowance to ensure it lasted the fortnight. Some of the guys from better-off families got double that and more but we didn't grudge them it. We knew our own family income limitations and how much our mother struggled to make ends meet.

We were looked after by a group of six or seven of the men plus a priest as chaplain. They would all have been doing it on a voluntary basis, using up their summer holiday from work to do so. Although it was no secret that one of the men was an alcoholic who took the caricature army type of approach to disciplining us - "See you... if your bed's no' made before ye come roon' fur brekfis, ah'll huv ye scrubbin' the toilets... wi' a toothbrush!" - he would have defended us with his life, I reckon. All of the boys, probably 41/42 of us - we had at least two football teams - loved him. The rest of the guys were more avuncular and much loved by us all. We understood they were giving up their summer for us.

I went on holiday with them seven years in a row.

Aberdeen, Wicklow three times and then Aberdeen another three times. It's why I am so fond of both towns.

And to this day I sometimes find myself thinking of Brenda whom I met in Wicklow my last time there and with whom I walked about a bit, too shy and nervous to even touch her hand but she was my first love, very attractive, at least to me, with dullish blond hair and pencil-slim. It was only on our last meeting that we confessed our true ages. When we first got talking we asked each other how old we were. She said 16, I said 15. In fact she was 18 and I was 14; we knew it it would never have worked out as I'd already been told next year's holiday would be in Aberdeen. The day before I came home we had a wee goodbye hug. Talk about innocent compared to the teenagers of today...

That paragraph should have been a brief aside but it ended up running away with me. Sorry.

The guys organised all sorts of activities, outings, visits to the cinema, etc, for us. My first time in Aberdeen was when I first saw The Jungle Book cartoon film. Gobsmacking stuff. And, as I said, football was a big deal. A few of the guys I played with at three age levels over the seven years went on to play professionally for the likes of Celtic and Chelsea.

Those are times I treasure to this day so I hope the kids you saw at the camp will remember it 60 years from now, jinnyj.

 

[jinnyj]

The couple that are currently running it (it was orginally set up by the local vicar as is often the case I think) told us about a guy who was doing some roofing locally who told them he had been to one of the camps as a child and it made such an impact on him, he realised that there was an alternative life out there and so worked hard to get out of where he was eventually training as a builder but never forgot the kindness shown to him in that week. He hadn't realised they were still going but made a contribution to the charity once he did.

 

[Jayhawk]

I have read the 2023 Little Toller Books edition of Michael Morpurgo's first book All Around the Year, published in 1979, which relates in diary format a year in the life of Parsonage Farm in North Devon. This is one of the farms involved with Farms for City Children, and the book's sale proceeds go towards the charity.
I would favour James Ravilious's black and white photos over Ted Hughes's poems.

 

[archie]

 

[trudij]

That would be me - and yes, I think around 90% of the kids who come to Nethercott ( and the other two farms!) are from less well off areas - mostly London seem to come down to us, but also surrounding towns and cities. One of the big things when Covid hit was that we staff wanted to keep going as long as possible because those kids were going to suffer way more than anyone else, but we weren’t allowed to.
To see them arrive and watch them gain in confidence and self worth during the course of five days is amazing, the majority don’t have scratch cooked meals, I will never forget the child who hadn’t ever had fruit - and most of them have no idea what animals produce what meat and wouldn’t have seen them up close. It’s a massive service and insanely rewarding to be involved with. ( can also confirm Michael is just as lovely as he appears !!)
It might be well supported - but like all charities it always needs more. Kids charities like these don’t get the same opportunities as so many and they are just as important, if not more so.

 

[maureen]

Sometimes even the smallest thing can turn a child’s life around.