It was certainly an action packed week at the OACT half term holiday club with 203 children attending over the week.
It was the first time the holiday club had been based at the recently opened Futsal Arena and the vibrant facility was instantly a hit with all the young children and parents.
Over the course of the week there was a chance for the children to try their hand at a variety of different activities ranging from football to futsal, dance to dodgeball and arts & crafts to board games. Particular highlights from the week were:
Inflatable Wednesday – The Big Slide
On Wednesday the children were treated to a huge inflatable slide which was hired for the day from Out 4 The Bounce thanks to the support of OACT partners Safeguard Group.
The slide gave the holiday clubbers a completely different activity and caused a huge amount of fun and laughter as various challenges were set out for young people to complete during the day.
As part of the day Ben Ingham, Education Community and Sales lead for Safeguard Group took part in the BigSlide fundraising challenge, with all money raised between split between Mahdlo and OACT.
Over the course of five minutes Ben had to see how many slides he could do. It was an extremely tough five minutes however Ben was determined he carried on, so far more than £700 has been pledged with £263 raised by the OACT holiday clubbers themselves – well done everyone involved!
In March Ben will trek up Mount Kilimanjaro in Africa to raise money for Mahdlo and his efforts have gone directly to that. We wish him every success!
Dance and Drama
On Thursday, Samm Hewitt who attends the Oldham University Campus and is an actor, singer/songwriter visited the holiday club to run different workshops focusing on drama and singing, it even involved a special performance from Sam himself. https://www.facebook.com/SammHewittMusic?fref=ts
Oldham Athletic Player Visit
Oldham Athletic players Genserix Kusunga and Timothee Dieng visited the Oldham Athletic Community Trust half-term holiday club to spend the afternoon with the staff and children who are attending the club.
The visit saw the pair answer questions from the children who were keen to find out all about the life of being a footballer with some children also keen to demonstrate their own footballing skills and get some tips on how to become a professional footballer themselves in the future. Genserix and Timothee also signed autographs and had pictures with the children.
OACT Champions League Friday
On Friday morning the holiday clubbers took part in their very own Champions League tournament, with Real Madrid, Celtic, Bayern Munich, Barcelona, Shakhtar Donetsk and Oldham Athletic participating in the tournament.
The morning saw a huge amount of tricks, skills and goals with the Champions League music even being played as the players emerged from the Futsal Arena tunnel.
The eventual winners were Bayern Munich (pictured below). A special mention must go to the streetcheer dances who performed a special half-term dance routine during the final.
Oldham Athletic Community Trust would like to thank everybody who attended the holiday club during the week.
They are delighted to announce that the Easter half-term holiday club will once again be held at the Futsal Arena the dates being Tuesday, 7th- Friday 10th and Monday 13th- Friday 17th. OACT anticipate an even bigger and better holiday club in April and places are limited so please book quickly to avoid disappointment. To book your place please email wendy.noble@oldhamathletic.co.uk.
In addition OACT would like to thank The Safeguard Group, Samm Hewitt, Out 4 The Bounce and Oldham Futsal Arena for their support and partnership work.