Long-running county charity keen to offer more free trips to Loughborough children who need them
In the last five years, 205 children from Loughborough have enjoyed trips arranged by the charity which has always served the whole county
A free adventure holiday by the sea awaits 42 children this summer, thanks to county charity Leicester Children’s Holidays that is looking to expand and offer more trips.
The long-running local charity has given 60,000 children a holiday over many decades and is putting the finishing touches to plans for its latest fun trip from Monday, August 5.
Between 2013 and 2018, 205 children from Loughborough went on the trips and the charity is keen to increase this number.
Leicester Children’s Holiday’s slogan is “Every child needs a holiday” and this is the 121st year it has been offering the breaks, drawing in children from Leicestershire, Leicester and Rutland. For many children, it is a life-changing experience in their young lives.
The youngsters will enjoy a week at the Hilltop Outdoor Centre near Sheringham in Norfolk, an adventure base right on the coast with an emphasis on fun. As well as offering a ‘bucket and spade’ holiday, the qualified staff engage with them and help them work together as a team – and create happy memories. The children are encouraged to develop a fresh outlook on life.
There are zip wires, climbing walls, mountain bikes, den building and exploring in rock pools- and lots of group activities.
The ratio of adults to children is 5:1 and importantly, the break takes the children away from any pressures or problems at home. Most of the group would not have had a chance to get away for a holiday.
Children between the ages of eight and 11 go on the all-expenses paid holidays. The youngsters are recommended by schools, charities, food banks and agencies such as social services. Between 2013 and 2018, 43% of the children who went on a holiday were from Leicestershire and Rutland and 57% from Leicester.
Leicester Children’s Holidays was set up in 1898 and is one of the longest-running charities in the area. There is a small management team of four people, 12 committee members plus some hard-working volunteers who take on many key roles. The charity covers the £391 it would cost for each child to go on holiday and nominations are already being taken for 2020. The charity always receives more nominations than places available, one of the reasons why it is so keen to expand and has been around to help families for all these years.
The charity’s manager is Nicky Kandola, a former head teacher in Leicestershire whose experience working with children makes her ideal for the role. She said: “The children we help are from all kinds of backgrounds who need a break and a chance to enjoy themselves. For some, they are a life-changing experience.
“We have been part of Leicestershire for a long time and when we organise fund-raisers or supermarket collections, we always get people coming up to us and saying: ‘I went on one of your holidays, it was brilliant.’
“Sometimes parents need a helping hand and that is where we come in. Recently one mum told me her daughter went on one of our trips. She was upset she couldn’t provide a holiday for her daughter, but that daughter now has a job at the BBC.”
The walls of the charity’s HQ in Leicester are full of photographs going back decades of children enjoying beach holidays in Mablethorpe.
For 82 years the charity was called LCH Mablethorpe and it ran a holiday base at which more than 60,000 children enjoyed week-long trips on a traditional bucket and spade holiday. The link to the area started in the 1890s when the first holidays were arranged. The girls then stayed in a purpose-built wooden holiday chalet on the sand dunes and the boys slept in tents. The charity had to find other accommodation during the First World War when the military took over the chalet for troops on duty keeping an eye out for enemy warships.
Later another building was added for the boys and in 1937 a bigger building became the charity’s home, housing both boys and girls. The holidays right on the beach were enjoyed right up until 2017 when it was sold after the upkeep costs became too expensive.
Part of the new management team set up earlier this year includes chair Parvez Bhatty. He said: “We have some amazing volunteers who have been with us for years and years.
“We are very keen to expand the holidays and eventually offer more weeks away in the summer and even breaks at half-term. For now we are on the look-out for people to nominate children from Loughborough.
“The committee, many of whom are trustees, also want to steadily increase the number of children enjoying our holidays each year and build on our successes in the past. For this we need the support of the people of Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland.”
The charity has become part of the fabric of the region with city and county mayors waving off the children each year from the charity’s offices. It enjoys support from scores of businesses, including Leicester City Football Club and Leicestershire Fire Service.
For further information and interviews with people who went on holidays as children, please contact Pam Pearce from Pam Pearce Communications on 07759 714680.
Video and photographs are available.
Leicester Children’s Holidays website
Hilltop Outdoor Centre’s website
