Sholing Philippines Project 2010 – 2016

Last weekend (6-7th June) Was our group fundraiser the sponsered
walk. We arrived bright and early at school saturday morning, and set
of to Tile Barn Bunkhouse, where we were staying the night. After
settling in we set of for the 24K we were walking that day. We got
lucky as there had been no rain the day before so the ground wasn’t too
muddy and we all made it through the day without sinking.

When we got back to the bunkhouse we had some free time to ourselves
and most of us spent it either on the decking or sat on a bed just glad
to get out shoes off. 😀

On sunday we had an even earlier start because SOMEONES alarm went
off at 6.30 am!! so all the girls were up bright and early packing bags
and cleaning the dorm, whereas the boys had to be woken by Mr Berry aka
Bezza banging pots and pans.

After breakfast we all set off for a second time most of us
exhausted (except Gemma who soared ahead) and though the weekend was
tiring, and for some painful, i am sure that it was a weekend that none
of us will every forget, and no one can wait untill february next year
when we can finally set off to manila to make a difference! 😀

I
woke up at 7 on the Saturday and was drowsy as I went about making sure
I had everything packed and ready for the walk. I was one of the last
few people to get there and put my sleeping bag and other bag on one of
the minibuses and kept the other one with me.

When we got on, I
was sat next to Julia and I was by the window. Everyone else was
talking about the walk and the lunch and snacks they had packed.

We
went straight over to Tile Barn and settled in. I dropped my bags onto
the bed that Julia had claimed for us (LOL) and went out onto the
little balcony kinda thing. We all settled in and sorted out our stuff
then went back into the lounge bit just before getting going on our
walk. We were doing 24km Saturday.

To start off with, I was near
the back and going quite slow, but I soon went off ahead with Gemma and
Ruby. It seemed like it was all uphill!

After quite a while of
walking (with me Gemma and Ruby staying ahead with Marie catching up
with us) we had our first break. We started off again and Gemma and
Ruby were off ahead with me and Marie lagging slightly behind.

When
we were… about half way to our lunch stop, Ruby started lagging
behind and me, Gemma and Marie started talking with George and ‘The
Other Dude’ (sorry Steven xD). We talked about random stuff, as you do,
and me and Marie kept on trying to find out ‘The Other Dude’s’ name. I
nearly lost my right trainer at one point because of mud. -.-

After lunch, we found out that his name was Steven (I did know that, I really did!) and we carried on in our like, little group.

When
we were stopping off near Tesco Express, all the guys went off ahead to
Tile Barn and left all the girls behind! When we set off back to Tile
Barn, me Marie and Gemma went off ahead again and even ran the last 100
yards. xD

In the evening, we did team things. The first one was
the caterpillar. And I have a warning, NEVER GO IN FRONT! When we did
the practice, I was at the front and nearly fell flat on my face 5
times. Then we did a stepping stone kinda thing, which we went through
quite quickly. Then… there was the water. -.-

We had a black
pole which had an opening at the top and holes all the way up. There
was a golden ping pong ball which we had to get out by filling it with
water and covering the holes with our fingers whilst the rest of the
group filled it up. We started off fine, but loads of ’em kept spurting water, and we used our water up quickly.

At
one point, Charlotte slipped up and spilled water all over me. In the
end, I was the wettest out of EVERYONE. I was completely soaked!

Day 2, we did 26km. After about… 4/5 km, Zoey had to stop because of her knees. She really didn’t want to At our lunch stop (when we still had about 17km to go) Julia also had to stop because of a REALLY bad blister on her heel.

At
one point, it started raining BUCKETS, so we all got ‘slightly’ wet.
When we were at the final stretch, I started to feel ill ’cause we had
been walking SO much, and I’d been pushing my body really hard. By the
time we got back on the minibus though, I was feeling better and we
were all SO relieved to get home!

The next day, I didn’t go into
school because I got up out of bed and fell back down. It was so hard
to walk and I was SO annoyed at myself! Stupid feet. >.>

Either way, all in all, it was really good, and I’d happily do it again!!

… Once my feet have healed.

Hannah Thurston

xXXx

on the 6th and the 7th of june i got up so excited for the sponsor walk, the only down side of that is i had to get up early to walk my two brilliant beagle dogs and get up to the school for 8:30am on a saturday. (i actually woke up )

when i got to school i was like the fist girl there and i didn’t know any of the boys what so ever but hey i still don’t know them all but know some of them (some of them are really nice and funny) i was kinda scared but really excited at the same time.

scared because i knew it was going to be long adventures weekend. And not good at getting to know everybody as i like people i know to introduce me to the people i didn’t know but thet did. (example i only met george and steven j because of hannah but we didn’t know steven till after lunch on the saturday. )

excited because i was meeting new people, love walking (got dogs that need alot of wlking every day) and just hanging around with new people. (mainly boys i get on better with them then girls)

we got on the mini buses (we had two) yeah it took us a long time to get to tile barn, we got there in the end. soon as we arrived to the bunkhouse we had to put our belongings in the peg area (not sure what it was called but hey it has a name) then go into the lounge (a really long sofa that takes a shape of a square but without one side of the shape.) Mr Berry had to tell us what room every one was in and what was going to happen. we had aproxmately one hour to get settled in. (at this point i hadn’t met the lads) then we set off for 24km and the weather was warm, just the perfetct weather for walking in .just about half way to the lunch stop i met two of the boys.(steven and george) it was kinda funny because me and hannah tried to work out steven’s name. me, hannah and gemma had enough energy to run up a small hill and into tile barn to the bunkhouse. we were all hungary and dinner was at 7pm (us three got to the showers before the girls got to tile barn)

it was 6:30pm and the caterers daughter abby came in our room ( i was on the terrace with the boys and hannah) asking to take the spare bed and if she could hang around with us. ( hannah was just saying to me that she was going to have the other bed) then insted of me hannah on the terrace it was abby as well then hannah got board so she went in and ma and abby was getting to know each other for some strange reason abby felt like she was my younger sister.

ok dinner was odd we had chicken korma and it was very watery and it had no flavour, also some of the boys was sat next to me at the dinner table, George Hoey, Steven Miller and a tall lankey dude. as i was eating i over heard them talking something about my brother ‘ i’m not kieran might beat me up’ the tall dude was saying that to the other two. i wonder what they were on about, never minde because i’ll never know.

after dinner we were put into three groups and it was cold and we had to do teamwork outside in the cold weather.

first activity was a caterpillar trail and it was hard beacuse there wasn’t enough space for all of us and where the lads were tall compared to us (esppecailly ME)

the second activity was a spot trail and that was fun but strange for the second round because we had to put the the spots through our legs and that was odd but hey it was fun and enjoyable.

the third activity was a randomgame because we had a tube with holes, a ball and the boys were pouring water on us on purpose and i was saoking and then when they got the ball everyone let go of the holes and the water was pouring all over me. because we were first i was board so i watched George’s group and he had his lips covering a hole and it kinda looked doggey but every one had fun!

anyway football was on and England was okay but i wasn’t botherd. it was just something to watch. after that we went to our bedrooms and when it was late we could hear the lads talking (couldn’t understood what they were talking about) then it went quite and they all went into the corridor and started to sing Buttercup (they were really good) we all set our alarms for 6:45 am

it was like 4 in the mourning and everyone is a sleep and i had nothing to do, i packed all my stuff away

still not finished

Marie – Louise Denny

-x-

We were in an assembly when I first heard about the charity project
and that was when I knew I wanted to do this. I see it as a one off
opportunity of a lifetime, both to help the under privaleged and also
to see other cultures and the way they live in such circumstances.

To be a member of the Sholing Philippines Project I wrote a letter
of application, and had to attend an interview, the likes of which Sir
Allen Sugar would’ve been proud of. I had to explain how I would
fundraise a large amount of money and what would I do if the project
was cancelled, what I would do with the money raised. (put it in the
charity bank) what I could bring to the group and what I thought were
my strength and weaknesses. (have none ).
We had to then return to our lessons with the Philippines application
on our minds… DID WE DO ENOUGH?… ARE WE IN?… WHAT WOULD
HAPPEN?… WHATS NEXT?…….

It was hard in lessons but hey we managed, just before home time
bell went we were all asked to gather up in the libary to be told the
news… IS IT GOOD NEWS?.. IS IT BAD?…..

While we were waiting on Mr D Berry, Miss Lewis was bracing us for
the worst by fibbing that there was only 13 successful applicants
(there were 16 of us)
so there we were muttering to each other that we wern’t through (my
friend Charlotte was crying at this stage), next thing we knew Mr Berry
came through the door and sparing us all the drama announced who would
be going, MMMMMMEEEEEE YAY. Those who were successful then spent the next 15 minutes consolling those who didn’t make it through.

Look out for my next blog.

Marie – Louise Denny x

Over the weekend of 6-7 June, the participants in the Philippines
project will be completing a 50km sponsored walk across the New Forest.
Staying overnight at the Tile Barn Outdoor Centre in Brockenhurst, the
group will walk for about 8 hours each day. Members of the team are
collecting sponsors now. Can you help?

Will they make it or not? Mr Berry and Mr Freeman are planning to walk
the 210 miles from South to North Wales in September 2009. Please
sponsor them!

We are really pleased that the first container that was loaded in February has reached Manila, just over two months after leaving Eastleigh. The container has now been unloaded and its contents sorted ready for use. Can you see any of your donations?

The second container destined for Manila arrived at the Horton Heath storage place during the Easter holidays, and a hard working team loaded office equipment and supplies for the new school. This week the container was moved to Ready Steady Store at Eastleigh and yesterday two baling machines arrived from CompactnBale in Kent, and were loaded. One of the balers will be used to compress cardboard for resale, the second baler is designed to compress plastic bottles and will be invaluable to the waste picking community because it will maximise their earning potential and bring much needed extra revenue to the community.

Volunteers will complete the loading of the container on Saturday 2nd May, and the container leaves for the Philippines on Tuesday 5 May.

Apply now if you are interested in taking part in the project and traveling to the Philippines in February 2010!

The first stage of the application process is to write a letter of application to Miss Dagwell. This should be handed in by assembly on Monday 9 March. Candidates who are shortlisted will be invited to interview soon after the closing date, and will need to supply a note from their parents supporting their application at this stage.

If you have any questions about the project, please see Mr Wilkinson in room 21 at lunchtime or after school or contact the project leader, Mr Berry at Sholing Junior School.

The letter to parents can be downloaded by clicking the icon below.

No? Neither can we!

The first of three containers to be provided to the Philippines Community Fund by APL this year left Ready Steady Store on Wednesday 25 February.

The containers, which took just one week to load, was full of vital supplies to support the fund’s work in Manila, including much needed tables and chairs donated by Hiltingbury Infant School and Crofton Hammond Junior School which will be used to equip the new school.

A second container is due to leave for the Philippines in early June with medical supplies, office equipment and stationery, with a third due to leave in October with playground equipment for the new school.