Over 500 kids in Rossendale able to enjoy activities programme this Easter

Businesses have been saved and been able to expand thanks to the Rossendale Holiday Activities and Food Programme (HAF).

Rossendale Leisure Trust administers the HAF programme which, over Easter, was enjoyed by more than 500 young people and families and was delivered by 15 different providers over two weeks. The trust secured £200,000 from the Department of Education to continue the programme in summer and also at Christmas this year.

In the latest sessions, young people enjoyed forest schools, laser tag, an escape room hula hooping, cookery and much more for primary, high school and special needs. A variety of venues were used in Haslingden, Rawtenstall, Whitworth, Water, Edgeside and Stacksteads and providers offered full-day and half-day sessions.

More: 100-year-old meets her great-grandkids for first time after seeing off pandemic

Rossendale HAF Co-ordinator Paul Gallagher said: “We put on activities in more than 11 different venues across the Rossendale Valley including Rossendale Leisure Trust premises. We are always on the lookout for new and interesting activities and we will be inviting expressions of interest from early May for the summer programme.

“Giving children the opportunity to take part in activities they might not normally get the chance to do, and to enjoy healthy food either as a packed lunch or a hot meal, is what the HAF is all about.”

Haslingden Community Link and Supreme Catering Rossendale provide free food for the programme participants. Paul said the HAF funding had enabled Haslingden Community Link to be able to buy equipment so they could deliver hot food to three separate venues.

Emma’s Crazy Creatures, run by Emma Higginson from Rochdale, has been involved with the HAF since it started last year and over Easter ran animal handling sessions at venues across the Valley. At St Anne’s CE School, Edgeside, young people were delighted to get to hold a variety of creatures from ‘Easter’ bunnies to a tarantula.

Emma said: “Last year, HAF saved my business from shutting because of Covid. The funds from the programme helped me to continue to look after the animals in my care, 90 per cent of which are rescues.”

At the school Jessica, six, carefully held a tarantula.

She said: “I held my hands flat and I liked holding it. The spider was tickly and it felt quite smooth but I didn’t stroke it because it would have rubbed its back legs and then it would have given me a rash. I like animals and I like learning where they are from and what they like to eat if they are a carnivore, a vegetarian or an omnivore.”

Alfie, four, got to hold a bearded dragon and said: “When it gets scared it gets hard and spiky. It was a little bit cold and it was little bit hard. I like all animals.”

Emma added: “This is an amazing opportunity for children to get hands on with animals they have never met before and they learn so much. Sometimes the children do not have pets and have never been to a zoo because their parents may not have the funds to take them.”