Young people spread the 'Message' (From Messenger Newspapers)

Young people spread the 'Message'

4:10pm Friday 7th August 2009

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TWENTY-ONE young people took to the streets of Woodsend to bring ‘a bit of blessing and light to people’.

The Christian-based scheme was part of a city-wide initiative to brighten up Manchester neighbourhoods.

The scheme, which was part of the Audacious Youth Festival, brought local policing teams, Churches and 1,000 Christian teenagers from Aberdeen to Torquay together to clean up the neighbourhoods of Manchester.

Alan Saunders, project co-ordinator of The Message Trust said: “The Message is based in Manchester, so when we heard we heard we could bring good to its communities, we thought it was too good to miss”.

Saunders said the scheme was designed to “do good things, give opportunity to young people and to bring blessing and kindness to a local community”.

The idea behind the initiative which aimed to bring ‘10,000 hours of hope’ to local Manchester communities was to “simply show God’s love action” according to Alan.

“We wanted to be able to tell people that God cares for their communities and so do we,” he said.

The youths tackled 14 hotspots in the area, which included the removal of graffitti from the telephone box on the corner of Irlam Road and Powis Road, the renovation of the garden at the Scout Hut, as well as picking up litter from the areas around Flixton’s branches of the Co-operative supermarket.

It wasn’t all work and no play for the youngsters however, who were not paid for any of their work, and both days culminated in a rounders match held on Woodsend playing field which created friendly competition between the youths and Woodsend locals.

The fun didn’t stop there, as the festival culminated in a massive outdoor free event in Manchester’s Cathedral Gardens and Spinningfields on August 8.

The event featured outdoor sports, live music, street theatre and, for the first time ever in the centre of Manchester, a bungee crane.

The week climaxed with a huge concert which was held at Manchester Central and a Guinness world-record attempt by aiming to construct the largest game of musical statues.

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