Norwich Union GirlsActive
PGL Court Farm roadshow, Herefordshire
3 Oct 2007
Yesterday I was on the 2nd of 5 GirlsActive Roadshows in Hereford PGL centre.
80 girls came from as far as Plymouth for a day of learning, confidence building and in some cases soul searching.
They were introduced to street dancing, body combat, trixster bikes, absailing and even went on a zip wire.
This year the girls have been far more challenging and I actually think it is sad that girls aged 13-16 have no inner confidence, low self esteem, are always worried about what people think of them, too much peer pressure etc… It has to stop!
We are heading for a generation of people that will not fulfil their true potential in life and not be given any respect when they go into the work place. I don’t want to see that happen so GirlsActive is about giving them a voice understanding the pressures they are under. Getting them to look at their own life and decide what they want
from it.
There were however some real success stories.
Rachel, from Plymouth High School for Girls, (on the left of the above picture) was petrified of heights in fact she was crying so much there was no way anyone expected her to absail this wall but after a lot of one on one encouragement and her own guts she did it! BRILLIANT! I was so pleased for her and I hope she is proud of herself!
She did it!
The other girl who stood out was Kimberley who had only met rachel on a bus from Plymouth the day before. Kimberley was brilliant as she supported rachel on the wall giving her confidence and basically being a friend. I believe she will go far and could be a real leader, in fact I am going to recommend her for one of the Youth Sport Trusts projects ‘step into sport’!
Emma Goolden was the School Sport Coordinator that brought Rachel to Hereford, she said her and the girls had a fantastic day and were ‘Action Planning’ all the way back to Plymouth.
I’m looking forward to my next GirlsActive roadshow on the 10th October at the University of Cumbria.
Watch out for my next report!
Kelly