London Link was kindly invited by Teenage General Meeting to come to their Manchester event, 10 (and 1 joining on Saturday) Young people and 3 adults from London Link crossed the road from Friends House to Euston station where we promptly got on the train – Which then stood in the station for another 40 minutes while we waited for a “train manager” to arrive, Virgin trains having turned down all of our offers to be train managers, finally got going.

We arrived at Manchester Picadilly station where we were met by some of the TGM group who showed us the way to Manchester meeting house with the rest of their group making 34 young people in total. We joined them for some traditional northern cuisine (tacos) and introduced ourselves with a game and allocated our “secret friends” for the weekend.  After that we went to epilogue run by the TGM group and a story telling then bed.

After breakfast we headed out to the local tram stop with our packed lunches and were whisked across Manchester to Salford Quays/Media city where we visited the Imperial War Museum North. Through the exhibitions and the immersive film screening we learnt from stories captured by local people about the impacts of war on people’s lives.

We ate lunch and headed over the Quays to the Lowry centre where we were able to look at the art work on display by L. S. Lowry. He holds the record for the most honours declined, one “honour” he didn’t get a chance to decline was having a shopping centre named after him, and this is where some of us also went.

We took a tram back to the meeting house and had some free time while dinner was being prepared. After dinner TGM and London Link took turns in running some fun games; pulling out the stops on the much loved classics like Sardines and Watch the finger.

The home groups that had been set up for the week then met to do a creative listening activity, after this London Link then lead epilogue and story telling. We had some hot chocolate and then bed.

Sunday morning we had breakfast and started some cosy glows. After Meeting we had an exciting treasure hunt around Manchester city centre where we had to find captions from plaques and signs around the historic parts of the city centre.

We had some lunch and did an evaluation of the weekend, tidy up then home.

London Link would like to thank TGM for inviting us to their event and for all the organising and time they gave to help make the event run so well. We’d also like to thank Manchester Quakers for allowing us to take over their Meeting House, the London Link volunteers and finally all the young people for creating such a great community.

– Michael

Next event – Interval Sept 27-28th 2014

On the 21st of March 22 young Quakers and 8 Quaker adults met up in a youth hostel in Littlehampton for a weekend of fun and games. After dinner we introduced eachother and established the boundaries so that everyone could have a fun safe weekend. After a freezing cold visit to the beach in which some were foolish enough to submerge themselves in the water, we headed back to the meeting house for epilogue, cocoa and bed.

This event was also highlighted by the featuring of secret friends in which each person selected a name from a bag and be nice to the selected person with gifts and hugs, without revealing who they were.We believe this creates bonds between people who might not otherwise communicate at these kinds of events and helped some first timers feel welcome.

After breakfast on Saturday morning we were treated to an informative workshop on drones in which we learnt about the horrible drone programme that the U.S and the UK is working to cover-up and the mental health effects of drone warfare on the pilots, who at first glance seem isolated from their work, but in reality can suffer from post-traumatic stress-disorder just as easily as other combatents. The U.S drone programme is estimated to have killed nearly 3000 people since it began in 2004, with incredibly high numbers being civillian casualties.

We made and flew kites in solidarity with those around the world who campaign against these programmes, and even made onto the website “Voices for Creative Non-Violence UK”.

After free-time in the town and some games back at the hostel, dinner was served before the evening game of “Empire” a memory based skill game which requires patience, skill and memory. Keith then treated us to a very relaxing epilogue before we settled down for bed.

On Sunday Morning we vacated the youth-hostel and joined the members of Littlehampton meeting house in morning worship. After lunch we had more free-time in the town of littlehampton, which was cut short by a hail-storm, we had time before a few more games before we headed home on the train.
I’d like to thank all the Young People who came and all the volunteers who worked really hard to make this an excellent Quaker event.

Theo

On the 4th of October, 13 Young people and 6 adult volunteers made their way down to Brighton Meeting house. There we met up with 9 more young people from Brighton and beyond, making 28 of us altogether. Like all events we started by introducing each other in as many creative ways as possible.

One of the great things about Brighton Meeting House is it’s very close to the beach, to get our bearings we headed down for an evening walk while some lovely volunteers made dinner. We came back, ate, had an epilogue, hot chocolate and then bed.

After breakfast on Saturday, packed lunches were made and a prologue and introduction to the theme was done, we wondered down to the beach with our picnic. We ate our food and played some games. Some of the linkers and a staff member even braved swimming in the sea!

We came back to the meeting house and signed out as groups to explore the lanes and laines of Brighton for a few hours. We had some tea, snacks and a bit of free time on arriving back to the meeting house. Some people used this to make beaded bracelets.

Judy from Brighton meeting arrived to lead a creative session exploring the theme of Awe and Wonder through writing poems, drawings and making clay models. Many Awesome and Wonderful things were made.

Dinner next and then some games, including a new favourite “Empire” and an old favourite “Sardines”;  Once everyone was re-found we went into an epilogue and then bed.

Sunday morning we quickly vacated the meeting room floor (carpeted, yes!!) to make sure it could be set out for Sunday Meeting. Had breakfast and then made our way into Meeting. We went out of meeting with the other Children from Brighton and carried on our own Meeting for Worship outside in the garden. After this we reflected on the weekend, gave feedback and heard about the up coming events (Quakers on Ice on the 17th Nov and the Winterval in early 2014).

Tea after meeting provided time to play a bit of Quaker bingo – trying to find people from Brighton meeting who “had a favourite biscuit” or “Went to a Quaker school” etc, probably to the bafflement of most of the Brighton Quakers…

We just had time to enjoy the fantastic weather again by going down the to the beach and visiting the pier before heading back to London and Home.

We’d like to thank all the Young People who came, the volunteers and Brighton Quakers for letting us use the lovely Meeting House.

Scottie, Michael, Sarah, Sam, Jonathan and Liz.