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Breakfast

Monday, March 15th, 2010

One of my favourite sounding words is breakfast. To be honest though I usually rush out of the house each morning having missed the most important meal of the day. Not today though.

I have just attended a Business Breakfast hosted by Jane Hutt in Barry College. The theme of the meeting was “Youth in the Vale”. Jane invited me to say a few words and it was a pleasure to be involved in something that was set up to celebrate the achievements of children and young people in the Vale of Glamorgan.

Children and young people were there from Gibbonsdown Youth Forum and the Vale Youth Forum as well as members from schools councils in Cowbridge, Llantwit and Barry and from Barry College Student Union.

I have to say that the cooked breakfast was fantastic. Prepared and served with great skill by the Barry College students. This job of mine is tough at times but you know what? Someones got to do it and if that means sitting down to a hearty breakfast in the company of children, young people and adults … well, I’m up for it!

After Jane and I had spoken we heard from the children and young people and all the things they are involved in. Things like designing questionnaires to find out the views of young people, encouraging as many as possible to get involved in local activities, establishing fair trade status in schools, working on school Eco committees, setting up peer buddying projects, teaching drumming skills to younger children. Fantastic stuff. For the adults present it was inspirational to hear about all the things that children and young people were achieving in their family, social, community and academic lives.

As I drove away from the event having chatted with everyone I left with just one thought in my head – “Aren’t our children and young people wonderful?” As Jane had said in her closing remarks the answer to that question is a resounding “Yes they are!”

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