Surrey Heath Youth Council (SHYC) has presented the charity Step-by-Step with a cheque for £170.  Receiving the cheque on behalf of the charity, community fundraiser Gill Butler commented “We are very grateful to the Youth Council for choosing to support our charity and for highlighting the work we do”.

The money was raised through an event in July organised by the Youth Council in honour of the 2012 Olympics and Paralympics at London Road Recreation Ground.

At the event there were activities to please all ages including fun inflatables, home-made cake stalls, ice creams and lots of mini Olympic races.  The charity R-U_Able2 also helped organise Boccia and mixed ability football.

Step by Step is based in Aldershot and has been running for almost 20 years.  The charity helps homeless and vulnerable 16-25 year olds in Rushmoor and Surrey Heath.

Eve Bushell age 15 and from Windlesham, has been awarded a StepUp grant to help her improve her netball. StepUp is a small grants programme run by the Windle Valley Youth Project, which aims to celebrate, encourage and support success in young people.

In Eve’s words…‘‘I have been playing netball since the age of 9, having watched my mum play from the age of about 3! Since then I’ve played in the Berkshire County Junior Netball league where I’ve been part of teams that have enjoyed various successes.  I was selected to play for the Surrey Heath Netball team for the Surrey Youth Games for 3 years in succession (2009-2011), during which time we won a silver and gold medal.

For the last two years I’ve been part of the Berkshire County squad. In June I was invited to and took part in a regional training camp over two weekends to assess my potential to be part of the regional training squad. Unfortunately I wasn’t successful on this occasion but I was thrilled to be invited and learnt a lot. I also went to a netball weekend in Brean Sands with my netball club where we lost by one goal in the semi-finals. It was an enjoyable weekend. Next season starts in September when the team is going to be competing in the South Regional league which will be a challenge.

For a lovely end to the season, I went to my club’s awards evening and won the coach’s player award for my age group.’’

Eve’s grant paid for her attendance at the regional training camp, and for a new netball post with which to improve her shooting skills.

UKTeenTV report on the Surrey Heath Celebrates the Games event organised by the Surrey Heath Youth Council.