A MINEHEAD youth club has become such a hit with the kids that it has had to start a waiting list for new youngsters to join.


The group, which runs at the Minehead Eye, started in January 2014 and is now welcoming 80 youngsters each Monday night.


Youth club lead worker, Ché Percival, said he was both surprised and delighted at how popular the club had become.


“When we first got the youth club going here there were three volunteers and we were getting about 15-20 kids come along from the middle school, and it was mainly my daughter and her friends,” he said.


“But before we knew it we were getting busier and busier and now we’re getting 70 to 80 kids every Monday and now we have seven volunteers on our books. We’re so busy that we have had to start a waiting list as any more would simply be too chaotic.”


There is a really positive atmosphere at the youth club, and Ché says this is down to the great team he works with and the fantastic facilities.


He said: “We normally have an hour long session of something fun, whether it is a giant game of dodgeball or rounders and our winter favourite is torch tag. We play football around the skate stuff, put goals in different places, play over the ramps. The kids love it.”


George Watts, 11, said he comes along every week and said the activities were awesome.
“We did a game called Hungry Hippos which was great – one person on a skateboard with a bucket and a load of plastic balls see how many you can get and drag them back,” he said.


Flo Mullett, 12, added: “Che is funny and makes it really good, we come down every week.”


Ché says the Youth Club is not all about the games, though – it is educational as well.
“We like to promote health and wellbeing and good eating," he said.


"Every so often we have a smoothie night where kids bring some fruit in, another night they may bring fruit in and we’ll have a chocolate fountain. Give them a grape with chocolate and they might try a grape for the first time.”


In the new year Ché has organised to have guests speakers coming in, including a local bank manager, a gym instructor and a beautician.


“They come here to have fun, but there is education involved. Sometimes, such as recently with the Paris attacks, I will get all of them together and discuss more serious topics,” he said.


He also wanted to express his gratitude to Butlins, where the youth club go for occasional trips, completely free of charge.


Ché has been a youth worker for 21 years and has run the youth club in Watchet for 17 years before the opportunity to run one in his home town of Minehead came up.

"I want to thank Charlie Kennedy, Mandy Wilcox and all the volunteers, Naomi Griffith and the team at The Eye, all the parents who support us and of course the kids who make it what it is." 

All we hope now is that the club can be successful with funding bids so we can provide financial stability to ensure the kids can have as much fun in the future as they are having now.

Minehead eye deliver a range of youth clubs across West Somerset, these include ours, Watchet, Williton, Carhampton and one which has newly started up at Cuckoo Meadow on Thursday evenings. For any further information just contact the Minehead Eye on 01643 703155.