Rutherglen teens enjoy summer fun
Street theatre at the Edinburgh Festival, swimming at the Time Capsule and trips to Strathclyde Country Park are just some of the activities enjoyed by young Ruglonians this summer.
Teenagers enjoyed a host of days out over the school holidays thanks to charity Universal Connections.
The Burnhill-based youth centre took dozens of teens on trips across Scotland to ensure they did not miss out on holiday fun.
They visited the Edinburgh Dungeons, Rollerstop and Combat City and caught all the latest movie releases with several trips to the cinema.
But there was just as much fun at the centre, with lots of new games bringing out people’s competitive side, while arts and crafts highlighted the youths’ creative talent.
Scales and Tails also took in a range of animals, whilst magician Gary Dunn performed.
For the first time Universal Connections also launched a breakfast club, opening up their doors to everyone in the community from toddlers to pensioners.
The food filled a gap left by school breakfast clubs and forged stronger links between the centre and different generations in the community.
Food was also a focus when youth worker Tony held his popular pakora making masterclass.
Victoria Barnett from Universal Connections said: “This has been a wonderful summer. The centre and our trips have all been really busy.
“We’ve had to turn people away from trips as so many people have wanted to come along.
“The breakfast club has been a fantastic addition to the programme and there were days when the staff would look round the centre in disbelief at how busy we were.
“Now the term time programmes are up and running again and it’s back to business as usual. The staff, though, are already thinking about the October week, which we hope is just as much fun.”
The end of the summer also saw an awards ceremony, where young people received a range of funny and serious awards, from volunteering to the most argumentative.
The overall winner was Anton Livingstone, asecond year pupil at Stonelaw High.