A long-running Burnham-On-Sea youth club is set to re-open in July after being saved from closure by a local charity.
Burnham and Highbridge mental health charity In Charley’s Memory has stepped in to save the Zone Youth Club, which will re-open on July 16th.
Burnham-On-Sea.com reported here that the long-running youth club, based at Burnham’s Bay Centre in Cassis Close, was due to close down due to a lack of volunteers.
However, after reading about the plight of the club – which serves dozens of children each week from across the Burnham-On-Sea area – the charity offered to help. In Charley’s Memory was set up after Burnham teenager Charley Marks took his own life at age 18 in 2014.
The charity’s Jenna Meyrick says: “The Zone Youth Club recently made local news as they were having to close their doors after running for many happy years.”
“We at In Charley’s Memory were very happy to be able to step in and take over the club in order to keep it running. We are officially reopening the doors on Tuesday 16th July at 3.30pm.”
“We are keeping the club at the same location, The Bay Club in Cassis Close.”
Jamie Scanlon, Chief Operating Officer at ICM, adds: “Upon reading the sad news that the youth club was being forced into closure I contacted the team at The Zone to see if there was anything that could be done to help. They were kind enough to invite us down to the closing party, which was brim full of happy faces and the young people talked enthusiastically to us about their love of their youth club.”
Jamie adds that ICM is very aware of the difficulties faced by year seven students when trying to adapt to secondary school, and the youth club provides the opportunity to make some connections with other children from the years above.
The club had been run successfully by Jayne Lilley and her son Brandon, pictured above, but several of their appeals for helpers had not yielded enough support for the club to continue.
