Charity celebrating 70 years of Holy Island summer camps

Saint Vincent de Paul society is a Catholic charity that provides summer camps for children.

And spaces are still available for summer 2024.

The camp is run by volunteers and has capacity for up to 64 children, aged nine to 12, for five out of the six week summer holidays.

Volunteer Barbara Taws said: “Children go out, they do a range of activities and have loads of fun. We do rock pooling, treasure hunting, sandcastle building, all sorts of different sports. It's just a really traditional seaside holiday.

"It is very popular and we get children returning year after year after year.”

Volunteers, many from nearby universities, are all DBS checked, safeguarding trained and trained in dealing with children.

Barbara added: "What’s really nice is we have a lot of volunteers who came themselves as children. This year we just started taking on junior volunteers and quite a lot of those said that the reason they were coming to help and volunteer was because they'd had such a lovely time as kids themselves at camp and wanted to give something back.”

"Even when it's raining, the children just love getting out and about, they're really delighted just jumping in puddles. Things children don't do now.

SVP advertise their price as a donation of £150, which is about £22 a day. However, where there's need they get funding for some children to go free or part-funded.

You can apply for your child to join the camp, or apply to be a volunteer by visiting their website and filling out the necessary applications here.