A very good month for paddling

The weather in August was patchy, but the attendance at Shark activities was defiantly not, we were involved in a lot of sessions with partner groups across our sites, delivery Summer holiday activates for people of all ages.

The Club trip to Llandysul was a fantastic weekend, shame we did not have a few more people attend. Paddling was the main focus, but there are other things to do and being together as a club in a social environment is great fun. Would anybody be interested in a similar trip, either here or to Llangollen in the October half-term?

We ran summer sessions at Harlesden, which were sponsored by GLi Urban Life, part of KSP, we are very grateful to them for their ongoing support and hopefully we will soon be able to use the improved access being created at Harlesden.

At Southall we ran a number of activities, we histed regular sessions on a Wednesday afternoon, we also teamed up with Canal and River Trust to deliver some family sessions as part of the new Southall Wellbeing way.

We also ran our regular sessions with Let’s Leap Holiday Clubs, at Southall operating from Three Bridges Primary School, whom we are very grateful to for their continued support. We are in negotiations to try and improve the facilities we have a this site. We have had a number of false dawns in Southall before, so we need to firm up any detail before going public. But, we are committed to developing this site as both a recreational and competitive location.

At Greenford Quay we have been running our regular sessions and number attending are growing. We now have the basis of a racing team beginning to show through and hope very soo to organise some trips to races.

We also took part in the Greenford Quay Canal festival. Again we would like to thank our partners at Greenford Quay, for their ongoing support.

At Osterley Park we have been running our regular sessions, but also had special sessions for Holiday Clubs, in particular with the Hounslow Learning Tree. We also had visits by international students amongst others.

Our sessions at Harefield are going well and our slalom team is growing, but we can always do with more.

In the background a lot, as always, is going on, we are trying to raise money for new equipment, improve our sites and keep costs affordable. Our partners have been amazing in their support, but we need more help, do you think you could help? do you have experience of raising money; organising events; applying for grants? If so please get in touch by phone/text on 07951 770241 or email canoeing@thesharks.org.uk.

Next year we hope to open more community hubs and to do this we need all teh support we can get, so please if you have any skills or ideas to support the Club, please do get in touch.

Published 5th September 2023