Lambourne End Centre celebrated the opening of it’s new climbing wall with a Mission Impossible theme. The Lord Lieutenant of Essex to opened the wall with big bang fireworks and two gorgeous men in suits abseiled down to mission impossible theme music to cut the ribbon. Confetti rained everywhere – it was a thrilling event. The climbing wall was a mission to complete – but the Centre successfully raised the £92,000 required in funding, completed a long planning application and all the staff passed extensive training. The wall is now open for bookings from local community organisations to come and complete the experience of a lifetime!
Lambourne End Centre in Lambourne End, Essex, provides outdoor learning opportunities to over 12,000 young people a year. Many are from the local area and include disability groups, school groups and community groups. The Centre has 54 acres of land with adventure activities, a working farm and residential accommodation. Climbing and abseiling are two sports which teach young people to push their individual boundaries, overcome fears and try something new. The wall was officially opened on Friday 9th April 2010 by Lord Petre, the Lord Lieutenant of Essex.
Collette, aged 20, a volunteer at the Centre, helped to ‘kit-up’ the first group of young people who officially climbed the wall on Friday. Collette said “I love climbing and it’s really helped me to grow in confidence since people at the Centre have taken me climbing at other centres. Now I can teach other local young people about climbing and can see them grow in self confidence and overcome any fear of heights. Plus our wall is really great because it’s got lots of different sections from easy to hard parts – that means they can come back to the Centre time and time again and progress to different bits.”
The young people from Essex YouthBank stated after being the first group to officially climb the wall, that ‘it was a brilliant use of the money and it was great to see young people playing an active role to create a new challenge and experience for other young people. It was really good fun!’
- Website: www.lambourne-end.org.uk
