This summer, 21 volunteers from all over the UK and 2 from Slovenia travelled to the Salesian community of Cowley to lead a 10 day formation camp for the young people of the area.

From Friday 25th July - Sunday 3rd August these volunteers lived and worked together as one community in the service of the young. Our theme this year for both the young people and the formation of our volunteers was 'partying with our superheroes' - the reasoning behind the theme for the young people was celebrating 25 years of VIDES UK and to allow them to understand the qualities of superheroes and to try to recognise these qualities in themselves. These included; strength, not only the physical strength of people but also the strength of their love and understanding of each other, flying looking at their ability to reach for their ambitions, and teamwork after all every superhero has some sort of team behind them.

The young people of Cowley were a credit to the community and showed our volunteers what superheroes actually are.

The reasoning of theme for the formation of our volunteers, wasn't much dissimilar to that of the young, however instead of looking at fictional superheroes, we focused on our Salesian heroes and how they are still inspirational figures to us as youth workers and volunteers, they included; Sean Devereux, Mamma Margaret, Mickie Magone, Laura Vicuna and of course both Don Bosco and Mary Mazzarello

The week was a great success as daily 45-55 young people took time out of their day to come and spend time with us. Last year was our first year in Cowley and parents and the local community didn't know what to expect, but thanks to the dedication of our VIDES volunteers, parents and the community once more put their trust in us to provide a fantastic week of activities.

We give our most sincere thanks to the Salesian Sisters community of Cowley for their warm welcome and continued presence on the camp and to the SDB community of Cowley, especially Fr. Peter for his trust in us to deliver a camp for his young parishioners.

Special thanks must go to our volunteers who each gave up a week of their holiday, to sleep on a floor and shower in a sports centre, to be a part of the camp. This year's team showed each other how to be true Salesian superheroes and we thank them for that.

We look forward to our return next summer to see the continued growth of the project for the young people we serve.