Carenza, Dame Kelly Holmes, Me (Toby), Charlotte, MP Tessa Jowel
On the 26th March, three of us from Action For Kids (Toby, Charlotte and Carenza) were selected as members of the youth forum, to go to a workshop run by Tessa Jowell MP and Dame Kelly Holmes (Double gold Olympic Medallist) at a rejuvenation centre in Commercial Street.
We all made our own way there. I arrived 40 minutes early and so sat in a café for a while. At 8:30am, I finally walked across the road to the centre and walked in. I saw Beryl near the desk. I hung around and met some other people from different groups. As I turned, I caught a glimpse of my sports hero…the one…the only………DAME KELLY HOLMES! I couldn’t believe I had finally seen her in the flesh. I thought to myself: ‘She is and absolute legend!’ I was speechless and stopped dead in my tracks.
First activity of the day was, to my surprise, a rejuvenation massage! It was aimed at getting us all to clear our minds and calm down be fore a busy day. It consisted of a combination of deep breathing, listening to calm music and massaging the body. The funny part of that was that I fell asleep! The person leading it had to wake me up. I felt like a right idiot!
We then all came out (slightly dazed) into the entrance area of the centre. We all then went to another room where all of us (and 47 other people) were greeted by Tessa Jowell MP and Dame Kelly Holmes. After a 20-minute introduction to the workshop, we were split into three groups: Group A, Group B & Group C. I was in Group A. Each group was allocated a room.
My group was in the ‘Metal Room’. We were in three groups within group A. We were then given pieces of paper and a pen for each group. Jess (a volunteer from V-20) asked us some questions about a party: what would or wouldn’t make us want to go. She then changed the word ‘party’ to ‘volunteering’.
We discussed the questions and wrote down our answers. We then took a break.
During the break, Kelly was walking around talking to people. I went over and asked her if it was okay to have a photo of her and me together on my mobile phone. She gave my phone to a V-20 volunteer. They took the photo and went away. I got a drink and went back to the room.
In the second session, we talked about successful campaigns (such as President Obama’s) in the same groups. We then made posters to show what we had discussed. We then watched a pitch from a company offering volunteering opportunities for young people. The project was called ‘Million’. This is the number of young people they are looking for to help in 3 years time. I started to think it would be quite cool to help, so put my name forward.
During all this, Kelly and Tessa were popping in and out of the room to see what we were up to. We then made posters about what made a successful campaign. My group used the example of Barrack Obama’s campaign for the US presidency.
After that, all the groups came back together in the room where the introduction to the day had taken place. I asked to speak for my group. I gave a very simple answer to the question: was their pitch good or not? I said: no. Everyone laughed. I didn’t mind. The other groups spoke and the workshop finished with some closing comments from Kelly and Tessa. A couple of group photos were taken and we got onto two buses
So, we all went on two buses around the Olympic park with a tour guide. It was absolutely tipping it down during the bus journey. We were all then dropped off at Stratford Station to go home. A great day was had by all!
– Blogged by Toby
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