Youth club wins awards

Youth club wins awards

1 April 2015

A NEWLY-formed youth club and late night in, in Killyleagh, has collected two top prizes at the NI Starquest talent competition.

The Friday night drop in youth club, which operates from the Bridge Centre in the town, collected the Northern Ireland Young People’s Commissoner’s Cup and the Down PCSP award at Saturday night’s competition in Bangor.

Matt Lynch won the Commissioner’s Cup for his solo street dance routine which wowed the judges for a second successive year, while Paulette Rice won the PSCP award for her rendition of  `A great big world... say something.’ The youth club had two additional entries with Curtis Croskery the highest placed runner-up on the night and Jodi Montgomery  also commended.

A bus load of young people from Killyleagh and Shrigley travelled to support the Killyleagh entries at Starquest. The funding for the bus was provided as a result of the fundraising boxing contest between DUP Council Chairman Billy Walker and SDLP councillor Terry Andrews.

It capped a memorable day for the youth club, established in the Presbyterian church hall in the town in late 2013 as a late night drop in to take young people off the streets, as it also collected two major prizes at the Down District Council Chairman’s Inspiring Youth Awards.

Young people from the club attended the awards function, at Downpatrick Racecourse on Saturday afternoon, to pick up the community involvement award in recognition of the training courses run in co-operation with the Northern Ireland Fire Service to cut down on the number of arson attacks in Killyleagh. 

As part of the outreach of the centre, it held an ultimate firefighter challenge for young people and then staged a week-long training course in which young people from three schools became firefighters for the week and learned a new range of life skills.

And one of the youth club members, 15 year-old Jack Sharvin, who has signed a contract with Nigel Clough’s Sheffield |United, received the sports star award.

As part of its outreach, the club is in the final stages of negotiations to erect a new Portacabin at the Bridge Centre which will be available for use by the local community as a replacement for the minor hall on the nights it is not in use by the youth club.