Fitzroy Youth Romania 2010

Thoughts....

2010-08-23T13:52:00.001+01:00

Hi guys,

I need some of you to help me out with something.
I'm writing a little report to Fitzroy Session (these are the people that lead our church) as they want to hear all about the Romania trip.

I would love it if some of you could write a little paragraph and email it to me about what the trip meant to you. Just your honest thoughts! Maybe reflect on what memories, lessons or important experiences you brought home with you? Just a small paragraph is all I'm after, nothing too long.

I've asked all the leaders to do the same so maybe you guys could send one too?

Do it now, just fire down 50 words and facebook or email them to me at cwbh@hotmail.co.uk. Even if your a parent whose child was on the trip we'd love something from you too.

Thanks!

See you all next week for Starbucks at Methody on Thursday!
2.30pm and a potential cinema trip after for anyone that can make it!

Tirgu Mures

2010-07-30T10:51:00.000+01:00

We are at the home of Vlad Dracula in Sigishoara! We've been touring the medieval village and are enjoying the sunshine. We're all sad that this great trip is coming to an end! We're going to a salt lake for a swim this afternoon. Spirits remain high. Tirgu Mures has been great.. We visited a gypsy village yesterday, facility for the handicapped, the citadel church and went for a swim after visiting the Lydia childrens home. All is well :)

Leaving...

2010-07-28T08:54:00.001+01:00

Leaving Oradea today and heading south to tirgu mures. Sad to be leaving here. It's been a great time here. Everyone is feeling great and spirits are as ever high. Not looking forward to this trip ending! Internet connection in next location is doubtful so we'll be posting less. All is well!

Oradea

2010-07-27T17:08:00.002+01:00

Great kids club again this morning. Weather is dull but not dampening our spirits!
We're having a special meal prepared by our host tonight.

We've loved staying here and will miss it dearly!

11.30 tomorrow we head to targu mures for stage 2.
Brian Hunter has arrived safely in Romania and is due to meet us tomorrow.

Internet connection doubtful in next location but we will do our best!

This trip has been a massive success, spirits are and have been high the whole way through. We're not done yet....

We'll do our best to keep you posted!

Photos on facebook....

Kids Club

2010-07-27T07:09:00.000+01:00

Final tileagd kids club today. Leaving for tirgu mures tomorrow, everyone is still well. We've all been challenged by this trip so far, really enjoying every minute! The team are doing great!

Photos on facebook! More to follow...

Tileagd day 2

2010-07-26T11:32:00.001+01:00

Amazing morning at kids club.
Music, games, water balloons, Noah, great times!

Back at hotel for a lovely lunch then out to visit some elderly members if the church congregation.

We are having a ball!

Tileagd

2010-07-25T11:19:00.002+01:00

We've arrived safely in romania!
Great morning at Tileagd Baptist.
Hotel is great and we're embracing the food!
Kids are in great spirits and we're being really well looked after.

Kids club this afternoon. All is good!

Check Chris Hunters facebook for photos!

Day 2

2010-07-23T18:07:00.002+01:00

Great day out in Budapest. The weather has been great and we've had a lovely time hangin out at all the sites. Rev wilkinson was told off for climbing up a chapel door and ben got in a fountain with everyone else following! Happy birthday to jenni today, we're having dinner to celebrate! Leaving for romania tomorrow and may not have an Internet connection. We are all very well and having a great time! Check Chris Hunter's facebook page for photos!

We've arrived!

2010-07-22T12:34:00.002+01:00

Hello everybody, Just a wee note to let you know we have arrived safely (along with all of luggage) in Budapest! We'll keep you posted on our trip when we can. Everyone is doing great--slightly warm, but otherwise in great form. We're excited to be here!

:) The Romania Team

Holidays...

2010-06-04T14:00:00.002+01:00

So Chris is away on holidays over the next two weeks and will return on Monday 21st June.

If you need any info between now and then please get in touch with Whitney.

E wlw04@hotmail.com

M 07590076212

Please remember to get your passports to us so we can make a photocopy and as I'm sure you'll all know that our payment due date is 21st June.

Don't forget our breakfast on Sunday morning, 9am at the church.

Children's Ferstival from 23rd to 25th June - if you wanna get involved just ask!

Stay Safe...

The Leaders :)

Important Information

2010-06-03T13:41:00.005+01:00

Fitzroy Romania Trip 2010

Parent/Guardian Information Sheet

Below you will find all the info you need to know about our trip....

Contact

If during the course of our trip you need to contact your child we ask that you do so via a leader with the contact details below.

Chris Hunter 07912174908/ cwbh@hotmail.co.uk

Whitney Wilkinson 07590076212/ wlw04@hotmail.com

Peter Gaston 07525475977

Alice Clarkson 07938560934

We kindly ask that you only contact your child during the trip in the case of an emergency.

If for any reason you need to contact Fitzroy Church

during the trip please call any of the numbers below.

Church Office 02890 235075

Steve Stockman (Minister) 07740443274

Website www.fitzroy.org.uk

Trip leaders will hopefully have limited internet access during the trip. We will do our best if possible to update the team blog during the trip.

www.fitzroyromania2010.blogspot.com

Trip Dates

22nd July - 24th July Budapest, Hungary

24th July - 28th July Tileagd, Romania

29th - 31st July Tirgu Mures, Romania

Accomodation

Budapest

Hotel Eben

1148 Budapest

Nagy Lajos király útja 15-17, Hungary

www.gerandhotels.hu

Tileagd

Hotel Vila Elim

Baile 1 Mai - Bihor

www.vilaelim.ro

Tirgu Mures

CE House Tisei Street

Tirgu Mures Romania

Departure and Return

We depart for Dublin Airport from Fitzroy Church on Thursday 22nd July.

You should meet at Fitzroy no later than 02.45am.

We hope to arrive at Fitzroy at 12 midnight on Saturday 31st July.

Communication with Parents/Guardians

Should we for any reason need to contact you during the course of the trip we will do so via the information you provided us with on your child’s medical form. In the event of major flight delays we will do so via mobile text message. In the event of a medical or other emergency we will contact you or your secondary contact on the telephone numbers provided.

Baggage and Items to bring

When we are in Romania it is going to be very hot, the temperature in Romania will be somewhere in the region of 30-40 degrees centigrade. Fashion will not be an issue. Please bear this in mind when you are packing! The people that we’ll be meeting will not care if we are wearing the latest labels but will probably be able to relate to us more if we are dressed even a little like them.

We’re looking at shorts and t shirts every day, skirts for girls are fine. Use your own discretion ie: mini skirts and hot-pants are not a great idea! You might want to bring few sweaters as it could get a little cooler at night. Girls please do not stress too much about make-up as culturally it’s not the norm in Romania.

23kg hold luggage per person and 7kg per person hand-baggage is the absolute limit for baggage weight. Please do not exceed this weight as we will have no means with which to pay extra baggage charges. In the case of you carrying too much baggage we will simply have to leave stuff behind! Remember that you will want to bring some presents home with you so leave room for these.

Please make sure that you bring any medication with you. We will carry a small team first aid kit but it is your responsibility to bring extras such as sun creams and insect repellent if you feel you need it.

Please bring a Bible.

You should also bring a swimming costume with you.

Spending Money

We recommend that you bring with you both Euros and also Hungarian Forints.

£40 worth of Hungarian Forints - for Budapest City / Airport / Train / Public Transport.
€50 for spending money in Romania.

Please note that this money is for things that you may want to buy such as drinks, snacks and presents. Some of it will pay for a a few public transport journeys in Budapest along with a few tourist site costs. You are therefore free to bring as much as you feel necessary, the amounts above are what we feel is enough to survive comfortably but not extravagantly.

Hungarian Forints can be obtained via your local bank.

We will exchange Euros in Romania for Romania Lei as this currency is much harder to come by outside the UK.

Remember that all breakfast, lunch and dinner have been budgeted for you already.

Travel Insurance

We have taken out an insurance policy that will cover all members of our team.

This policy will cover..

Cancellation Fees up to £3000
Compassionate Return Costs up to £300
Travel Delay £100-£3000
Missed Departure up to £500
Personal Accident up to £15,000 (Accidental Death) £40,000 (Permanent Disability)
Hospital Benefit £400
Petcare Fees £150
Personal Property up to £1500
Money up to £500
Loss of Passport up to £250
Hijack up to £500
Personal Liability up to £2,000,000
Legal Expenses up to £25,000

If you are in possession of an E111 Health Card you should should bring this with you.

A full copy of our insurance document is available on request.

Behaviour / Conduct

It is the team leader’s expectation that all team members will conduct themselves in a respectful and cooperative manner at all times. Alcohol, drugs and tobacco will be prohibited for the duration of our trip. We will regard any breaking of these rules as extremely serious. In the case of acute misconduct expulsion from the team and a return home will be considered.

Passports

During the trip, team leaders will take responsibility for the safekeeping of passports and other travel documents.

A copy of the letter we sent you today...

2010-05-28T11:23:00.002+01:00

28 May 2010

26 College Green

Belfast

BT71LN

Dear Parent and Romania Trip Team Member,

Please find enclosed the medical form that we said we would send you.

It would be much appreciated if you could complete this form and return it to us along with your final payment (due Monday 21st June) .

For details of the amount now due you should visit...

www.fitzroyromania2010.blogspot.com

Thank you so very much for all your efforts in making the build up to this trip so successful, without your energy and enthusiasm it simply would not have been possible.

Can we take this opportunity to remind you of our parent’s info night on Wednesday 2nd June ay 7pm in Fitzroy Halls. This will be a great opportunity for you to ask any questions that you may have about the trip. We realise that this is an extremely busy time of year and promise not to keep you too long.

Our final fundraising breakfast will be held at Fitzroy on Sunday 6th June at 9.45am. The last breakfast was a huge success and we hope that you will join us at the next one. All team members as before should meet at Fitzroy at 9am to set up.

One final bit of information, from 7th - 21st June, Chris Hunter will be on holiday. During this time if you have any queries about our trip you should contact Whitney Wilkinson on 07590076212 / 90235075 or wlw04@hotmail.com.

Thank you once again for being part of this amazing trip. As our departure date fast approaches can we encourage you to keep it in your prayers, it’s really going to be a great trip.

Thanks for reading!

The Romania Trip Leadership Team

Costs

2010-05-27T11:14:00.002+01:00

So we've reached the point where we are able to give you a final price for our trip.

The remaining balance is £260.

This amount includes everything involved in the trip apart from money you may want to bring with you for presents, food/snacks bought outside of normal meals and some public transport costs in Budapest. We may also visit some attractions in Budapest for which you should bring some money. We will give you an idea of how much spending money you should bring but this will be kept to a minimum.

Insurance, Flights, Mini Bus Hire, Meals and Accommodation are all included in the price above. We've also managed to book a bus that will transport us all to Dublin Airport and back to Belfast.

We want to give you plenty of time to get this money to us so we've set the due date as

Monday 21st June.

The best way for you to pay is by sending a cheque to the address below...

Fitzroy Presbyterian Church

Youth Department

26 College Green

Belfast

BT71LN

You should make all cheques payable to "Fitzroy Youth Club"

We will be posting out a medical form that we ask you to fill in and return to us along with your payment.

Please do not forget about our parent's info night next week on Wednesday 2nd June in Fitzroy Halls at 7pm. We promise we won't keep you long but this will be a great opportunity for you along with your parents to ask any questions about the trip. Please do your very best to be there.

Can we ask that on the parent's night that you bring your passport with you.

We will make a photocopy of it and return it to you on the evening.

Thank you all so much for your patience and cooperation, the trip is really coming together and excitement is building. Please keep all the organisation of this trip in your prayers, pray for all our leaders as we try to make this an amazing experience for all involved!

The Leaders :)

BAC Day 22nd May 2010

2010-05-18T12:11:00.003+01:00

So we have our team building day this Saturday at Belfast Activity Centre, most of you have all been before so you know where it is!

However if you need a map you can click here.

Please meet at BAC at 9.15am sharp as we want to get our session started as soon as possible!

You should get collected at the same location at 12.30pm.

Bring with you a complete change of clothing and a towel along with the medical form that we will be emailing out to you all today. Please wear appropriate clothing that will allow you to participate in the activities. Remember that fashion is not an issue at BAC!

The session will cost you £10, you should bring this with you. If you are paying by cheque you should make it payable to "Fitzroy Youth Club".

Please do not forget about our breakfast on Sunday morning at Fitzroy, we need you all to be at the church no later than 9am. It'll be a great opportunity to connect with the congregation and also to raise us some money! Please remember to invite some of your friends and family.

So check your email and we'll look forward to seeing you there! A list of the people attending are as below...

The Leaders :)

Team Night 12th May

2010-05-11T14:50:00.002+01:00

Just a reminder that we are meeting tomorrow night in the Fitzroy Manse!

See the last blog post for details. See you all there!

7pm-8.30pm

Team Night 12th May

2010-05-04T14:32:00.002+01:00

As we said in our last blog post our team night (12th May) is happening next week with Steve Stockman coming to talk to us.

The venue for this night will be Fitzroy Manse, Steve and Janice have kindly invited us to come up to their house. Sadly we will have to live without the luxury of Fitzroy halls and for this we apologise ;)

Steve and Janice's Address is

64 Maryville Park
Belfast
BT96LQ

You can view a map by clicking here.

We will meet as scheduled from 7pm-8.30pm.

Please don't forget about our team meeting the Fitzroy Congregation this Sunday at the morning service. The service begins at 11am in Fitzroy Church.

A big well done to Fiona and Alison Mcneill for organising a fundraiser at their house over the weekend, they raised £250!

The leaders :)

12th May Team Night

2010-04-30T15:47:00.002+01:00

We're looking forward to seeing you all on 12th May for our team night.

Just so you know, Steve Stockman the minister of Fitzroy will be coming along to talk to the team about his experiences of taking teams aboard to South Africa during his time as Chaplain at QUB.

It'll be a great night, so make sure you're there! 7pm -8.30pm.

We may have a change of venue for this meeting so watch the blog to make sure you know what is happening.

The Leaders :)

Breakfasts!

2010-04-29T14:43:00.002+01:00

So there are a few there are a few things we need to tell you about..

On Sunday 23rd May and 6th June at Fitzroy we will be holding 2 breakfasts before the morning service! At these breakfasts there will be gorgeous scones, great coffee and loads of other quality home made food for people to come along and enjoy before the morning service. Weather permitting they will run in the grounds of Fitzroy and they will be great! We hope to get a tonne of people to come along and all proceeds will be going towards our Romania trip!

These breakfast will run from 9.45am- 10.45am on both mornings. £3 for adults. £1.50 for kids.

This is where the team comes in...

We need the entire team to get involved in serving food, cleaning up and generally just mucking in with whatever needs doing on both mornings. So please get this date in your diary now and tell your families that they need to come along, for those of you who don't normally come to Fitzroy it will be a chance to see what happens in the services too. We want everyone on the team to be a part of these events so make sure you do your very best to be there!

On the mornings of each breakfasts we will meet at the church at 9am SHARP! :)

Don't forget about the team taking part in Fitzroy's morning service on Sunday 9th May (see yesterdays blog post). The service starts at 11am.

There are a few fundraising events happening that we haven't posted here that hopefully some of you will be attending, a girly night at Fiona and Alison Mcneill's house this Saturday and a leg waxing extravaganza in Fitzroy on Friday 7th May.

On the subject of final costings, we really hope to come to you soon with something, with all this fundraising and grant applications to come back to us happening we want to make sure we get it right the first time. Don't worry we will give you all plenty of time to get your money in.

Please make sure your parents are getting this info and make sure they read the blog regularly!

The leaders :)

We need you!

2010-04-28T12:11:00.002+01:00

On Sunday 9th May there will be a family service at Fitzroy.

The theme of this service is all about the church being the body of Christ, living, breathing and active in the world!

At this service we want to introduce the Romania Team to the Fitzroy Congregation. We would love as many of you as possible to make it along to this service, we will only ask you to say your name to the congregation and we will probably rope some of you into answering a few questions about your hopes for our trip!

The service will be in Fitzroy Presbyterian, 11am on Sunday 9th May.

Please do your very best to come along and bring your family along, it will be a great opportunity for us to get the congregation right behind us!

Looking forward to seeing you there!

The Leaders :)

BAC Day 22nd May 2010

2010-04-20T15:35:00.006+01:00

Brendan Williamson
Ben Mathews
Maeve Mateer
Sarah Norman
Richard Sayers
Joel Auterson
Peter Fitch
Peter Gaston
Katie Prince
Jenni Uprichard
Vicki Roberts
John William Carey
Chris Hunter
Jack Fogarty
Cathy Spence
Joanna Blake

This is the list of people that have signed up for the team building day at BAC on 22nd May.
We are there 9.30am-12.30pm and it will cost you £10.

If anyone wants added to the list then you need to let us know asap!

The Leaders :)

Dates, Dates, Dates

2010-04-14T14:53:00.002+01:00

We hope that you are planning on coming along to the team night tonight, remember we are meeting in 26 College Green, this is the church office in the building directly behind the church where we met two times ago.

We have a few more dates for you...

Our next team get-together will be on Wednesday 12th May at 7pm in Fitzroy, at this meeting we will be thinking about team organisation and dynamics! It'll be fun, we guarantee.

We want to invite all parents and/or guardians along to an evening on 2nd June at 7pm in Fitzroy to ask any questions and for us to tell you all in more detail about the plans for our trip. This will be a great opportunity for you all to get some insight into specific things about our trip. We hope that as many of you as possible will come along.

Please do not forget about our team building day at Belfast Activity Centre on Saturday 22nd May (9.30am - 12.30pm, £10) many of you still have not signed up, we will be asking for final numbers at tonight's meeting!

On the issue of a final price, we're working on it and should have it with you soon, we're just trying to pull together a few final details. Thanks for your patience!

As ever if you have any questions or requests please get in touch via Facebook, email or telephone.

The leaders :)

Team Night

2010-04-12T09:08:00.003+01:00

Just a little reminder that our team night is this week.

Wednesday 14th April
7pm-8.30pm
26 College Green

Please note that this meeting will take place in the church office and not in the church.
College Green is the building directly behind the church building where we held our first team night.

Please make a huge effort to be there!

Also many of you have still not replied about our team building day on Saturday May 22nd, 9.30am-12.30pm.
Please make sure you can tell us either way on Wednesday. We really need to know if you can come or not.

The Leaders :)

Costs

2010-03-30T12:24:00.000+01:00

We hope you are enjoying your Easter break so far!

We are nearly in a position to give you all a final price for the trip. This amount will hopefully appear in the next week or two and we'll be sure to give you enough time to get your money in. This final price will cover the vast majority of your costs for the trip such as internal flights, travel insurance, airport transfers, hotel and hostel costs and mini bus transport.

We're currently looking at the best way to pay for food costs during our trip.

For example, for our 2 days in Budapest breakfast is included in our hotel price but for lunch and dinner the plan is to eat in the city, somewhere inexpensive and relatively healthy. It's probably best that in this instance we don't include these payments in your final payment but rather budget it into the amount of "pocket money" that we think you'll need.

The church in Tileagh (our second location) will be providing us with lunch and dinner and as you can imagine at this stage they have not got an exact figure for us in terms of price. It will be inexpensive but at this stage it's difficult to get an exact figure and of course we cannot pay them by credit card!

In Tirgu Mures (our final location) we will have access to a kitchen facility to make our own lunches and breakfasts and as a group we'll do a 'big shop' when we arrive.

We tell you all this so you'll see how difficult it might be for us to get exact food costing before departure. These costs will be minimal as food is not expensive in Romania but just so you all know that we're working out the best way to take care of them!

We're looking at the idea of "pocket money" and the best way of going about this. Any suggestions from past trips you've been on with school etc would be most welcomed. We want to strike the balance between allowing team members to have some cash in their pockets and also not carrying too much cash with us during the trip.

When you signed up for the trip we said that the cost would be in the region of £350-£500 and this will still be the case. All of you have paid £250 already just so you have an idea of how much we'll be asking you for.

Thank you for your patience!

Many of you have still not responded to us regarding the team building day on 22nd May at Belfast Activity Centre.
Please let us know over the next few days!

The Leaders :)

News for you...

2010-03-23T09:53:00.000Z

It's been great to hear that people have been organising their own fundraisers and trying to organise ways of bringing in a bit of money for the trip. Aisling Press' Guide group did a bag pack from which half the money went to our trip. This money will go in it's entirety to some of the projects that we will be visiting. Aisling raised £122 pounds which was great! Amy Mathews had a coffee morning at her house on Saturday just past. We've still to get an amount from Amy but it's so great to hear that you guys are making a real effort to get ready for the trip. If anyone else is planning anything please let us know.

Hopefully you will all have made contact with your buyer from the people auction. Please make a big effort to follow through on the item you put up for sale and more importantly to get the money from your buyer! If you need contact info for your buyer please get in touch with Chris or Whitney and they can provide you with it. If your buyer is giving you a cheque they should make it payable to "Fitzroy Youth Club".

As we posted a long time ago, we've organised the team building day at Belfast Activity Centre on Saturday 22nd May, 9.15am-12.15pm. We need to know by the end of this week if you plan on attending! Please let us know either by Facebook, text or by email. This will be a great day to be involved in, we want all team members to be involved so do please get in touch!

Our next team meeting will be in Fitzroy Halls on 14th April, 7pm - 8.30pm. Please be at this meeting as these times are really significant times of team bonding and an important time during which to get to know your team mates!

So...

1. Follow up on your people auction sales.
2. Keep us informed about any fundraising you're doing.
3. Let us know by the end of the week if you are attending the team building session at BAC on 22nd May, £10.
4. Make sure you've got our next team meeting in your diary. 14th April, 7pm-8.30pm, Fitzroy Halls.

The Leaders :)

Time well spent...

2010-03-10T14:17:00.000Z

Some Photos...

2010-03-10T14:11:00.000Z

Aspirations....

2010-03-09T17:23:00.000Z

I know that many of you came away from both our team night and the table quiz really excited and looking forward to the trip. A HUGE thanks to you all for helping out at the table quiz and for making it the MASSIVE success that it was. You made us all very proud and to raise £1400 was just wonderful so a big well done to you all.

So we got our heads together last week and you all came up with what our team might agree to in terms of our commitment to each other and the trip during the weeks and months that lie ahead. You all signed up and agreed to be apart of this!

Our Aspirations during the trip and in the months ahead are...

1. to have fun
2. to talk and interact with everyone
3. to get plenty of sleep
4. to cooperate
5. to stay together
6. to pray and read the Bible
7. to learn something new about ourselves and others
8. to accept gifts graciously
9. to give 100%
10. to have a team time every day
11. to leave nobody out
12. to welcome Chris' dad on to the team
13. to talk about any issues we may have out in the open
14. to read the blog
15. to read the blog again :)

These are your hopes for our trip when we are there....

1. to eat new food
2. to meet new and wonderful people
3. to stay healthy
4. to get a tan
5. to enjoy culture and history
6. to help people
7. BANTER :)
8. to try new things
9. to go deeper with God
10. to find a team song
11. to see Christianity in a different culture
12. to see a gekko
13. to learn some Romanian
14. to work as a team
15. to learn a new skill

These are the things you said you were fearful of...

1. Disease
2. Weird Food
3. Travel Sickness
4. Losing Alison
5. Big Dogs
6. Falling out
7. Grouchy Chris
8. Sunburn
9. Fiona in the morning
10. Language barriers
11. Unsanitary conditions
12. Flying

You all did so well last week at all our little get togethers! We're building a real sense of team and you should know how valued each of youis as individual team members!

Have a read through the lists above and think about them. What are your hopes that aren't written up there? What things can the team do to help you with them? What are you doing to contribute towards all the hopes and fears?

Don't forget about our next team night and that we need you all to sign up for the Team Building Morning at BAC by the end of the month! (Check past blog posts for details!)

Have a great week and stay in touch. Legends you all are!

The Leaders :)

Quizzing...

2010-03-02T16:31:00.000Z

So you'll all be busy inviting friends and neighbours to the table quiz this week. Remember we want every team member to bring along at least 6 people! The people auction is looking great and lots of you have been emailing Whitney table quiz rounds, good job! Here's how the table quiz is looking...

For the highest bidder....

Gillian Fitch will bake a gorgeous cake every month for 6 months. (£10 starting price)

Neil Sedgewick will give 3 epic guitar lessons! (£10 starting price)

Victoria Roberts will walk your dog 4 times!

Richard Sayers will cut your grass 3 times!

Brendan Williamson will wash your car 3 times!

Ben Matthews will give 2 tennis lessons!

Fiona Mcneill will provide 1 nights baby sitting!

Sarah Norman will provide 1 nights baby sitting!

Peter Fitch will give a private musical serenade on the ocarina!

Whitney Wilkinson will paint a custom made picture! (£10 starting price)

Cathy Spence will provide 1 nights baby sitting!

Amy Mathews will do your ironing twice!

Claire Williamson will give 3 gcse/as/a level french oral prep classes! (£10 starting price)

Chris Hunter will give 2 gcse/as/a level spanish oral prep classes! (£10 starting price)

If your name is missing off the list then Chris has probably forgotten so you should remind him!

Heather Carey along with some of the girls by now should be mobilising the cake stall, they might ask you to bake something or may already have done so! If you'd like to contribute get in touch with them on Facebook or text.

The cost per head for the table quiz is £4 and there will also be lots of cakes and goodies to buy too!
Doors open at 7pm at Fitzroy Halls and we should be all done around 10pm.

Don't forget about our team night together this Thursday at 7pm in Fitzroy also, we'll be thinking about our hopes for the trip and just spending some time together.

See you all then!

The leaders :)

Reminder!

2010-02-25T14:57:00.000Z

Please don't forget the Table Quiz..

Friday 5th March (Next week!)
7pm-10pm
Fitzroy Halls

Remember every team member must bring along at least 6 people!
It's gonna be a great night!

The Leaders :)

We're building a team...

2010-02-23T11:13:00.000Z

All of you will agree that we need to build as much team spirit as possible before we head away on our big trip.
Having spoken to most of you over the last while we noticed that not everyone knows everyone on the team, we all hang out together every Friday night but as ever there is always that one person that you've just never got round to talking to!

So we want to remedy that...

We have organised a team building session at Belfast Activity Centre on Saturday 22nd May 2010.
This session will most likely take place in the morning and will only cost you £10!

You can check out BAC at www.belfastactivitycentre.com

Please put the date in your diary and do your very best to be there, we really want as many of the team to be there as possible. If even one person is missing it makes a real difference!

We need everyone to confirm attendance at the session no later than Friday 26th March. You can confirm via the Facebook page or in person, just let us know either way anyway you can!

On the issue of final payments for our trip we'll be posting news in the not too distant future. We're just waiting on final quotes coming in regarding travel insurance and a few other things. We will give you plenty of notice so don't worry!

Don't forget about our team night next week on Thursday 4th March in Fitzroy at 7pm.

Remember to get your invites out for the table quiz and people auction, we want everyone to bring as many as they can.

Have a great week and if you need any information please get in touch.

The Leaders :)

Video...

2010-02-19T16:59:00.000Z

Hi everyone,

We're attempting over the next while a series of little video messages on the Facebook page. Some of these will involve leaders and maybe even some of you guys talking about your hopes etc for the trip. We'll also be giving out some general info and reminders via video.

Just to keep things interesting!

If you would like to be in a video for any reason surrounding our trip please contact a leader. Maybe you could talk about your hopes for the trip, tell us what your most excited about or simply tell the team a little more about yourself!

New Team Member..

2010-02-18T20:46:00.000Z

So we have some more news for you!

As many of you know Chris' dad, Brian Hunter has worked in Romania for 20 years now.
He's an expert in all things Romania having clocked up 70 visits to Romania over the last 20 years!

Brian will be joining us for the final leg of our trip in Tirgu Mures. Some say Chris is becoming more like him the older he gets. Chris says that there's no finer man!

Please get your people auction ideas to us by tomorrow.

The Leaders :)

All for Friday...

2010-02-17T13:28:00.000Z

Hi everyone,

Please remember to get your people auction ideas in by Friday! Send them to Chris on cwbh@hotmail.co.uk.
A little reminder on the Fitzroy Youth Weekends too, we must have your forms and money in on Friday at the latest.
If you have any ideas for good table quiz rounds get in touch with Whitney soon before she gets in touch with you!

Have a good day :)

People Auction and Table Quiz

2010-02-15T14:42:00.000Z

Hi again everyone,

Remember we need your people auction ideas by this Friday! We've had some good ones so far but most of you still haven't got back to us!

Here's a few examples...

Gillian Fitch - Will bake a cake for the highest bidder every month for 6 months.
Neil Sedgewick - Guitar Lessons x 3 to the highest bidder.
Vicki Roberts - Will walk the dog of the highest bidder 5 times.
Richard Sayers - Will do a nights baby sitting for the highest bidder.

Some great ideas! Keep em coming because we need them all for Friday!

Table Quiz News....

So we want as many people coming as possible to the Table Quiz on 5th March, that way we raise more money for the trip and the projects that we'll be visiting!

We want each team member without exception to be responsible for bringing at least 6 people along (not including yourself!). The cost of the evening will be £4 per head, that means that we could potentially raise about £600 pounds from just team members alone!

Please make a huge effort to bring as many friends, neighbours and family members as you can as it will all make a real difference. Invite as many people as you can!

Fiona McNeil, Cathy Spence, Jenni Uprichard, Amy Mathews, Maeve Mateer and Katie Prince have all been asked to get the ball rolling on helping stock up the tea, coffee, cakes and buns stall so they will probably be in touch soon. Whitney will be roping some of you into the quiz rounds so expect a text or a call from her soon!

News on hoodies coming soon...

The Leaders :)

Some More Dates For Your Diary!

2010-02-10T12:18:00.000Z

We mentioned a while back that we want the team to meet together as much as possible before we head off to Romania.
We've therefore scheduled some team nights that will happen over the incoming months, these will be of a similar nature to the one we had in January. We'll keep you posted in due course on the content of each night, please do your very best to make it along to all these nights. It's so important that we all get to know each other as much as possible over these months! The dates of the team nights are as below..

4th March
14th April
12th May

These will all take place in the L shape Room in Fitzroy Halls from 7pm-8.30pm.

Please remember to get your people auction ideas to us. Gillian Fitch has come up with a great idea which is to bake a cake every month for 6 months for the highest bidder! Thanks Gillian!

We hope to post information soon about final payments and costs in the not too distant future. We will keep you posted.
Remember to get your vaccinations sorted and to check your passports validity, ideally you'll have it valid for 6 months either side of the trip.

If you need any info please do not hesitate to get in touch with us.
Contact info can be found on the facebook page or on the church website if you need it.

People Auction!

2010-02-09T12:50:00.000Z

Hi everyone,

As all of you will know we are holding our big table quiz fundraiser on Friday 5th March. We hope you have invited all of your family and friends along as it's gonna be a great night!

This is a little email about the people auction....

This is the general idea...

Each of you thinks of something that you can do, maybe it's something you are good at or something you know you can do easily. We then put together a big list of all these things and people bid for them. You then arrange a time with your buyer and do whatever they bought! You could be walking dogs, washing cars, baby sitting etc etc etc!

So for example on the list it would read...

Chris Hunter - 5 x 30 minute dog walks.
Whitney Wilkinson - 1 evening's baby sitting.

You get the idea!

What we want from you by Friday 26th February is what you will be doing! So get thinking!

When you know what you're doing please Facebook message them to Chris Hunter. We must have them before 26th February!

Thanks!

The Romania Trip Leaders :)

And there's more...

2010-01-20T14:33:00.000Z

So we've got some news for you...

First of all, we've got a fundraiser night organised and scheduled for Friday 5th March 2010.
This will be a table quiz fundraiser along with a people auction, it's gonna be a great night!

We'll be asking some of you guys to put together rounds for the quiz and also to be there on the night to help out doing everything from selling tea and buns to reading questions and who knows what else! Please make sure you are all there and bring your friends and family - all aunties, uncles, cousins, dogs and cats are most welcome!

You'll probably be wondering what a people auction is! Well here's how it works... you think of something you're good at... maybe you're a great dog walker, a cook, a grass cutter, a baby sitter, a singer, a patio scrubber... you get the idea!
Next we auction you off for a high price! You then cook a big meal or scrub your neighbours paths or cut their hedges! All proceeds go towards the costs of our trip, simple, fun and effective! Get thinking about what you could do because everyone must have something!

We'll post more info about this night soon!

We hope by now you are looking at getting all your vaccinations, the list of the ones you need is posted already on the blog.

We have received a quote for a group travel insurance policy which will cover all team members for all eventualities you can think of. We've been advised to have this policy to cover all people on the team and it's come in at just £25 per person. This will be added to final cost of the trip.

All of our accommodation is now booked in Hungary and Romania. We've also arranged a trip to Dracula's Palace in Transylvania and also to Sovata where we'll go swimming in a big salt lake! It's all really coming together!

Please don't forget about our night together on January 28th with Denise Wright on encountering other cultures and traditions. We'll meet in Fitzroy Halls at 7pm, that's next Thursday.

Please tell us about any fundraising ideas that you've had or anything that you've been doing to raise some funds for your trip. Do this via the Facebook group or come ready to share ideas next week.

We'd like to encourage you all to keep coming along to Fitzroy Youth activities that start this weekend as usual. 'Flipside' and 'Flipside Plus' Youth Clubs start this Friday and 'Evolve' our Youth Fellowship starts Sunday night at 8.20pm in Fitzroy. We'd love to see as many of you as possible coming along over the next few months. We think it's really important that the team spends as much time together as possible before we head off.

Finally parents, please get in touch if there is anything that you need to know! We're always here to answer any queries that you may have.

I think that's enough for now! More to follow soon....

Fundraising...

2010-01-11T12:23:00.000Z

Hi again,

We'd love to hear any ideas you have for fundraising for our trip.
We know that some people are already doing some stuff and we'd like to hear more from you. We're looking at having a big fundraiser night sometime soon, probably in March. Any ideas you have would be great!

We hope to post sometime this week info about travel insurance so keep an eye out for that.
In terms of final payments for the trip we hope to have some info for you over the next few weeks.

Have a great monday!

Happy New Year!

2010-01-04T14:01:00.000Z

Hi everyone,

We hope you had a great Christmas and that you're all coping with the return to school today!

Don't forget our night together on January 28th in Fitzroy Halls as outlined in the post below. 7pm -8.30pm.

We just wanted to reissue some information about the vaccinations that we recommended you talk to your GP about getting before setting off. As you know we recommended that you talk to your GP about your own specific needs, we took our advice from Belfast Travel Clinic and this is the advice that we will officially be following.

When you talk to your GP they may offer you other vaccinations that we didn't recommend you get. One team member for example was advised to get an injection for encephalitis by their GP. You may want to ask your doctor about this as it seems that opinions on recommended vaccinations could vary from doctor to doctor.

Therefore, so that we have somewhere from which to start we are officially recommending the vaccinations as advised to us by Belfast Travel Clinic. These are as outlined below...

Diphtheria
Hepatitis A
Tetanus
Polio

We're sending a letter out this week with some info on it that will make sure everyone is getting this information. Please tell your parents about this blog or the Facebook group as it's vitally important that they get their hands on this information.

More news to follow soon!

Some News....

2009-12-16T15:43:00.001Z

Our trip is really taking shape!

Today we booked our internal flights that will get us to Budapest from Romania in plenty of time to catch our flight back to Dublin on the 31st July.

Our hotels are all booked in Budapest and Oradea. Nothing too luxurious but clean and comfortable!

Very soon we will be in touch regarding insurance, we've got some people getting us a group policy quote that will cover everything, we'll keep you posted.

Remember to be thinking about vaccinations, get in touch with your GP as soon as possible and see what they recommend specifically for you.

It might also be an idea at this early stage to take a wee look at your passport and make sure that it will be in date at the time of travel. We recommend that it's valid for at least 6 months after the dates of travel. 22 July - 31st July.

We want to get you all thinking about fund raising ideas. Big and small they all add up! Today, Neil Sedgewick and Chris Hunter agreed to do a sponsored weight loss between 10 January and 28 March! Such a simple idea, people pledge for every pound we lose. We'll have a weekly weigh in and keep everyone up to date.

Get thinking about your own ideas! Maybe run a little coffee morning at home? What about a people auction? The possibilities are endless!

Keep an eye on the blog for more info coming soon!

Date for your diary!

2009-12-15T15:44:00.000Z

Thursday 28th January 2010
7pm-8.30pm
Fitzroy Halls

We'll be having an evening with Denise Wright from South Belfast Race Relations who will be telling us about engaging with people from different ethnic backgrounds and traditions. Denise works with Romanian people in Belfast and also has experience of working in Romania too!

We hope you will all be able to make it along.

Vaccinations

2009-12-13T23:45:00.000Z

We hope you all passed on the information to your parents regarding vaccinations today!

Please contact your GP regarding your own situation as soon as you can, you still have plenty of time but best to get in the picture as soon as you can!

Thank you all for coming along to the breakfast today, get excited and start thinking of your hopes for our trip!

Breakfast!

2009-12-12T00:29:00.000Z

Make you sure you come along to our team info breakfast.

We'll fill you in on all our current plans and take some time out to do a bit of team building as we get ready for the run up to next July!

Fitzroy Halls @ 9.30 am this Sunday.

Welcome!

2009-12-12T00:02:00.000Z

Welcome to the Fitzroy Youth Romania 2010 Trip Blog!
This is the place to come for all the latest news and info on our trip next July.