CISV NORTH EAST February 2015

Letter from the Chair. We are now approaching the busy season for CISV. At the start of February we had our Selection Day where we formed 3 delegations for villages in Germany, Ecuador and Japan. We are also sending a group of older children to a 3 week Step Up meeting in Germany. Of course we are also working hard getting things ready for our home village which will be held in Wooler. It is the first village we have had in Northumberland for many years and we are all getting quite excited about it. We are still looking for village staff and kitchen staff so any volunteers would be very welcome. Nearer the time we will also be looking for donations of food people may wish to contribute, such as breakfast cereals, biscuits etc. Perhaps our members could get cooking during those long summer holidays in order to provide our visiting children (and adults) with some homemade cakes, tray bakes etc! We will be hosting delegations from China, Ecuador, France, Germany, GB, Greece, Italy, Japan, Netherlands and USA. JCs will be form Austria, Ecuador, GB (2), Mexico and Portugal. We are always on the lookout for new leaders to take children to villages and camps so if you know anybody who might be interested please let us know. I would like to thank our very hard working committee. In particular I would like to mention Angela who has taken charge of fund raising and who is doing a magnificent job, Jane who produces this news sheet and Paul without whose work CISV NE would probably not function. If there are any members who would like to join the committee please let us know. Finally I must mention our wonderful group of juniors who organise Junior Branch. They do a great job and I am quite excited to hear that they plan to organise more outside activities. Whatever they are I am sure they will be great fun. I hope to see you soon at a CISV activity

Brian Ruderman Congratulations. Congratulations to Edward Syndercombe and Alice Ritchie, who have been selected as Junior Counsellors for Villages taking place in GB and Portugal, and Matthew Quigley who will attend an IYM in Austria this Christmas. 2015.

2014 Report back evening.

The report back evening on Saturday 15th November was the official end to this year's CISV programmes. The children who presented all did a fantastic job and gave some wonderful power point and video presentations about their trips. Clearly, they all had great summers in Canada and the Netherlands.

Other programmes for 12 to 15 year olds in CISV for 2015/16

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Up – Kiel, Germany 31st July – 22nd August 2015. The leader is Jamie Houslay and the children are Joe Cowell, Finlay Ward, Morgan Brown and Frances Bell.

 Thanks also to our 2 JCs, Connie and Theo, who gave us a great insight into being a village JC at their camps in USA and GB, and hopefully inspired the children to apply when they are 16+. Finally, a big thank you to all parents for the help and sacrifices, you have made over the past few months in preparing your children for their CISV experiences.

Leaders needed: -Will you be 21+ in 2015/16? Villages and Step Up programmes require a leader to take the children to them. The shorter programmes, such as Project GB and IYM, are ideal for someone who would like to become a leader for the first time. If you are interested please contact Paul Cleghorn for more information on becoming a leader. [email protected]

We are sending a delegation to a Step

International Youth Meeting (IYM) – 16+ Austria, Graz - Matthew Quigley will attend this at Christmas.



International Youth Meeting (IYM) – we have 6 places for 14/15 year olds to go to Sweden, Vasteras from 27th December ‘15 to 3rd January ’16. £600. Contact Paul for a space – [email protected] but hurry as places go fast.

WANTED – HOST FAMILIES FOR

OUR 2015 40th CISV NE WOOLER VILLAGE. Thank you to all who have volunteered so far. We have had a great response - but still need a few more families for the weekends of 25th- 26th July and 8th – 10th August. If you can help out please email Jane Greenshields at [email protected]

Summer Villages and Camps 2014 On these pages some of the children who participated in International Villages and camps this summer share their thoughts and experiences with you.

Monster Village – Ottawa, Canada – Summer 2014 It took a long time to get to Ottawa but the journey was still great fun. We flew from Newcastle to Heathrow, then from Heathrow to Montreal. I’d never been on a flight without my parents before, and although we did have an adult with us, he was way cooler than Mum and Dad and so it felt like we were travelling alone – it was so exciting. Once we arrived in Montreal, we then took an overland coach journey to Ottawa. This took about two hours and gave us a chance to see some of Canada’s amazing countryside. We stayed with a Canadian family for the first 2 nights and did some amazing sight-seeing. This included visiting Quebec and staying in a lakeside cottage where we took part in lots of water sports including a water trampoline, tubing and pedalos. After the homestay, we travelled out to the village to meet up with the other children from all over the world who we would live with for the next 4 weeks. During my time in Canada I met some amazing, thoughtful and even strange people. For example, Matt the camp director used to tell us some fantastic stories and was always joking around – he was even dressed as a Cookie Monster when we first arrived at camp! Everyone was so helpful in every way possible. I also learnt some tiring and scary games that I will remember forever; such as rich and poor day, which taught me how many people in the world are very poor and how fortunate, we are to live in such a wealthy country as England. I hadn’t fully appreciated that which I admit I felt embarrassed about. CISV allows you to have fun in every way including taking you to the beach, swimming pools, museums and the local attractions. The best bit is all the amazing friends you make from all over the world! That is why you have so much fun, spending time with your friends and experiencing a once in a lifetime opportunity

Going to Amsterdam on CISV last summer was the best experience of my life. At first, it seemed like it would be impossible to know everyone's names, but we did plenty of name games so I knew everyone there. Everyone was friends with everyone else, and I made some really close friends. There were four main activities in a day, which were usually about making friends and understanding cultures. After the first week, the fourth activity becomes a 'National Night'. In a National Night, each country shows songs, dances, costumes and facts about their country. It was really interesting and fun; my favourite National Night was Americas, as theirs was about the 4th of July and we played lots of games they would play. For each game you could win tickets, then win a prize! All of the National Nights were amazing! One day, you go on an Excursion Day; these are amazing and you go around in groups, with 2 or 3 adults, and you look around a town in that country, or go somewhere incredible. I went to the St. Petersburg 'mountain' (it wasn't very high!) and we went in the caves. It was so fun and interesting. We learnt a lot about Amsterdam and about the caves. After that, we had a nice tour around the town of Maastricht. It was amazing! We got to see lots of cool things, such as a huge chess board and the canals. You also go on a shopping day, where you shop for presents and souvenirs. I got loads of fabulous souvenirs for my friends and my family. One of the last nights you have is Casino Night. On Casino Night, you dress up nicely and you go and have fun! You dance, there are fun games you can play and on my camp, you could get a 'wedding photo' as some people had dates. It was an amazing experience and I would definitely recommend it! You get more confident and you make so many new friends that you can keep in contact with. It makes you understand more about the world and cultures and it was the best time I ever had.

Village in Ottawa, Canada – Jessica Ward Village in Netherlands – Elizabeth Quigley

This summer CISV Manchester hosted a village in Guiseley. This Village had 12 delegations, France, GB, Hong Kong, Netherlands, Thailand, Iceland, Norway, Ecuador, Georgia, Germany, USA and Israel, and had JCs from GB, Canada, USA, Norway, Israel and Austria. One of the Junior Counsellors (JCs), who would like remain anonymous for their personal safety (OK it was Theo!), has said it was an amazing experience. Despite already having done a village at 11, he felt that he had got even more out of it, from seeing how the camp was run, and the huge effort put in by everyone involved, to making even more friends across the world. He thought the best thing about being a JC was having more responsibility for the running of the camp, including planning some activities like JC Olympics and a large water fight! The worst thing was having to listen to his Mum’s music in the car on the way to camp…! Whilst Theo was JC, I decided that I wanted to help out in the kitchen –due to the fact that two of the JCs on camp had been on village with me in Germany when I was 11. Although I was only there for about a week, everyone was very friendly and I felt at home right away. Being a member of kitchen staff, whilst it does involve some work in the kitchen, can be really fun once the kids get to know you. You really get a great idea of how the camp works and you feel really well liked by everyone (as you are their only supply of food for any given day!). All in all I would really recommend kitchen staffing to pretty much anyone as you feel like you are really contributing to the camp while you are there, and it is really good fun as you still get to meet loads of great people and, if you’re lucky like I was, you might get to see someone you know - who you haven’t seen since you were 11!

Alex Greenshields (and Theo Fisher) – Village in Manchester, GB

GET INVOLVED ! Would you like to be involved in our 40th NE village in Wooler this Summer but don’t have a lot of time to spare? We still have spaces for camp staff and kitchen staff – you can help out for just a few days or for as long as you like. Contact Paul Cleghorn at [email protected]

Junior Branch 2014/15 Wooler Mini camp

Wooler mini camp was a fun filled weekend, with excellent activities. It was a great time to meet old friends and make some new ones. I especially enjoyed the activity about different mental health issues, it was really interesting and fun, and it made me understand the different ways these problems affect people. On Saturday night we played this brilliant board game where each group had a different power and all the teams had to work together as one big team, to get rid of some “viruses”. On Sunday afternoon just before we had to go home, Louise got the parachute out and we all played washing machine, it was a great way to end the perfect weekend!!

Louise Greenshields

2015 in JUNIOR BRANCH! Exciting things are coming up this next year in JB! This year’s theme is Conflict and Resolution and we have lots of interesting things planned, with some really cool activities, including more outdoor ones. We also have a JB activities day at our Wooler Village on 14th August. In National Junior Branch we had our years 9/10 minicamp from 6th -8th Feb and there is a 17+ weekend from 27th-29th March. It’s going to be a great year in Junior Branch that you won’t want to miss.

Connie and Alex (LJRs)

Fundraising Winter/ Spring 2014/15 Thank you!

To Angela Parkinson who has taken over as head honcho (!) of our fundraising committee with gusto. Angela has had a very busy year, not only organizing our Mexican night, with the rest of our amazing fundraising team, but also doing a bungee jump and the Great North Run! Thanks to Angela and her crew the total raised from these

events was £3,018.62, which includes £ 878 from the very successful bag pack at

Thank you! To our Senior Branch who have, as ever, been working hard to raise funds. They and the CISV North East committee would like to say an enormous thank you to the following people:David Robinson who continues to raise funds for us from donations of used stamps. Catherine Cookson Charitable Trust who donated the sum of £250 to CISV NE. The Joicey Trust who donated the sum of £2,000 to CISV NE.

Sainsbury’s in Neville’s Cross in October, all for CISV NE!

Give as you Live! Please find below a link to raise a little money towards our next CISV Village in Wooler. Here’s how it works: thousands of well-known online stores (from Amazon to Zavvi) have signed up to donate to charity through Give as you Live. All you have to do is sign up (it take seconds). Then, whenever you shop online, some of the price of your purchase will go to your chosen cause. All without costing you a single penny extra. Easy.

Get started now -

http://www.giveasyoulive.com/invite/R9 Uvagw-2BjX5KkufAZIGd9BDaqUa8Og-3D3D Make sure you register to give to CISV northeast!

Reminder: Unwanted gifts If you have any unwanted gifts, toiletries, etc after Christmas please give them to any committee member or bring to JB so that they can be put to use for tombolas and raffles!

KEEP SAVING YOUR USED STAMPS FOR US! Please keep sending us your used stamps - British and overseas. Just bring them along to Junior Branch and put them in the stamp tin. Paul Cleghorn will pass them on to David Robinson who sorts and sells stamps and gives us several hundred pounds each year, but we do need to supply them!!

Dates for your diary 2014/15

2015 Junior Branch dates.

SELECTION DAY.

7th March New delegations’ first meeting. Let’s give them a big welcome. 25th April – Junior Branch 16th May – Junior Branch/AGM 13th June – Junior Branch 11th July – Summer party

The Selection day for the 2015 villages took place on Saturday 7th February 2015 at Hotspur Primary School in Sandyford. We will send to camps in Ecuador, Japan and Germany this year.

14th August – JB activities at our 40th CISV NE Village. We will go up in the afternoon and stay throughout the evening activities. All Saturday 7-9pm at St Georges Church Hall, Jesmond – unless stated otherwise These are open to all ages from 8 years upwards whether or not you have participated in a CISV event before. For further details contact Paul Cleghorn [email protected] . Don’t forget to pay your £2 sub at the door!

DATE FOR YOUR DIARY!! ON: 11th July 2015 @ 7 – 9pm AT: St George’s Church Hall, Jesmond CISV North East JB is having their Summer Party! You don’t want to miss a night of games and activities and a final farewell to this year’s Village and summer programme attendees. Our Mexican themed night last year was not to be missed!

All other enquiries to our Chairperson Brian Ruderman [email protected] Tel 0191 2651161. Please send any news, interesting photographs or contributions for future Newsletters to Jane Greenshields at:[email protected] or Southbank, Elm Bank Road, Wylam, Northumberland. NE41 8HT. Tel 01661 854701.