Summer this year began on the 3rd July for Youth Ministry, with the arrival of 24 young adults from around Europe hoping to qualify as trainers for Don Bosco Youth-Net. We had a small host team cooking and looking after the guests each day from 0800 to midnight for the ten day Step 3 course. We also provided one of the trainers in the guise of Fr Bob Gardner SDB and we had our own participant from Great Britain, Gina Hindley. It was a great opportunity for us to work together as Salesians in the UK (Vides and Youth Ministry) on a project and it was a success, not because they said we were exemplary hosts with good food, but because it gave us the chance to experience the wider Salesian family and the wealth of committed young adults we have volunteering for the mission Don Bosco entrusted to us. By the way Gina passed the course and will train volunteers in Europe.

From that we moved into our usual summer activity, 'Phoenix', in which we provided six schools with ten places each on a project for young people leaving Year 7. This is always very popular with the schools, and places were filled by January! This year the weeks were led by Amy Grattidge and Chloe Ceairns who both did an outstanding job. The teachers accompanying the 60 young people are always supportive and are a welcome addition to the small team of volunteers working on the week. This year as well as canoeing, swimming, team games, we added a climbing wall, because of generous donations received during the year.

During Phoenix we welcomed the family of Bro Greg Golas SDB, who tragically died in 2013 at Savio House. His family wanted to come and see our camps in action. They brought sweets and gifts for the young people and volunteers as well as teaching them all a Polish dance. It was lovely for the teachers to have the opportunity to share a few memories from 2013.

Whilst all this was going on we sent three of our volunteers, Madeleine, Hannah and Georgia, on a six day training course called "Routes to Europe" in Vienna where they met other young Salesians from around Europe and focussed on refugees and cultural identity.

During the second week of Phoenix, Youth Ministry piloted a new venture called 'RISE' for Year 11's and 12's. This was a fantastic beginning to the project. The young people work together and look at leadership skills and their gifts in leadership. One Year 11 from Farnborough summed up the week' 'Last week was one of the best in my whole life. I have met fantastic people, learned essential leadership skills and had an opportunity to reflect on what is important for me. It's been a great week; I've never laughed so hard or so much in such great company before.'

The next event that called upon the presence of Youth Ministry was the provincial gathering for the Bi-Centenary event at Thornleigh, Bolton. Twenty-six of us attended and hosted the event with Gerry Kehoe and the Provincial. This was truly a memorable day for us all. The volunteers always come out of provincial events with the word 'WOW' on their lips, and this was no exception!

Lastly, the summer ended with Don Bosco Youth-Net, Step 2 in Malta, attended by two of our volunteers David and Anya. Tne project called 'Step out of the Box' brought twenty-four young people from across Europe to explore and learn from the best practices, on how to maintain a project and give it life. They only arrived back recently so we await their report, as so far we have only seen pictures of this beautiful sunny island ,and the young adults having a great time.

Sue McDonald - SYM Animator