Youth Report
Namaste everyone and Jai Shree
Krishna
I
would like to begin by wishing you all
a very Happy Diwali and a Prosperous
New Year..
So let me start by introducing myself.
My name is Nikhil and I am the new
Youth Leader for SPA (UK). But it’s not
just me. We also have a brand new
team backing me up too. Mahendrabhai
from Leicester and Divyen from
Coventry are my two assistants.
Review of 2013
We have now been in our new roles for
just over five months and we have been
incredibly busy and this has been a
huge learning experience.
We started our new roles by supporting
the Senior Members’ Samelan in which
we presented all of the speeches
in front of over 700 lovely elderly
members. I won’t lie to you, but this
was undoubtedly one of the most nerve
wracking experiences any of us have
ever done in front of a really critical
crowd. But trust me, it was one of the
most worthwhile things any of us has
ever done, particularly when lots of
Kakas and Masis commended us on our
Gujarati … and so many of them asked
us whether we were single!
Our next big event was the 35th
Annual Sports Day. Any branch that
has hosted this event will appreciate
the hard work required to pull off a
good event. I would like to take this
opportunity to say a huge thank you
to Sonal (SPA Leicester Youth Leader)
and her small team for organising a
tremendously successful day at the
University of Loughborough. Just under
500 participants from 13 branches took
part this year. These numbers are down
on previous years, however we have had
a long think about the reasons for this
and we are putting new initiatives in
place for next year which we are pretty
confident will help boost the number of
people who play sports next year.
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The SPA (UK) Golf Day tournament was
held at Birstall Golf Club, Leicester. Over
40 golfers travelled from every corner
of England to tee off and enjoy the day.
The event would not have been possible
without Leicester’s Arvindbhai’s
organisational skills. He has put in a
lot of his own time to make this event a
success.
The cricket tournament was held at
Leicester University. Five branches
participated in the tournament and
we were blessed with spectacular
July sunshine. Leicester won the final
against Bradford by 2 runs. However
the best performances during the day
were from Bradford who achieved the
highest score in a match (120 runs)
and the highest scorer in one match
was Dharmesh with 60 runs. We
would like to thank all the volunteers
who helped make the day a success
and Maheshbhai from Leicester in
particular, who helped plan the day.
Looking forward to 2014
The start of a new year is a really good
opportunity to reflect and think about
the Youth Team’s achievements over
the last few years and really where we
want to take the Youth Team next year. I
feel that over the last few years we have
seen diminishing numbers in Sports Day
and a decline in youth events.
As a Youth Team, we are going to
specifically focus on making these two
events our number one priorities for the
coming year and we have a number of
exciting changes planned for 2014.
I am very proud to announce that
Sports Day 2014 will be hosted in
Manchester by SPA (UK) Tameside. This
is the first time in many years that we
have announced a Sports Day venue a
year in advance. Bring on Manchester
2014!!! The cricket tournament has
been booked for the 6th July 2014 in
Leicester, so Keep this day free.
For the first time in four years, we are
proud to present the new, revamped
SPA Ball 2014. The ball will be held at
the Ramada Warwick hotel and we have
a Masquerade theme. Please see the
flyer on Page 14 for more information.
My biggest hope after reading all of
the above is that I have managed to
stir up some excitement in all of the
younger members of our Samaj across
the country. We are making a large
number of changes and have some
exciting projects coming up in the
New Year. So if you are reading this
and feeling a little inspired and want
to add something new to your local or
UK Samaj events, I would really love to
hear from you!
I would like to finish by saying a very
big Thank You to Mahendrabhai, Divyen
and all the Youth Leaders for their
continued support over the past few
months.
On behalf of the SPA (UK) Youth Team,
we’d like wish you and your families all
the best in the New Year.
Jai Shree Krishna,
Mr. Nikhil K Mistry
SPA (UK) Youth Leader (2013 -14)
YOUTH