Twinning Association back in action after lock down
TWINNING ASSOCIATION BACK INTO ACTION FOLLOWING LOCKDOWN!
CLETA held its first public meeting on Wednesday 27th October since the beginning of the pandemic. The Town Hall only has limited capacity in the Tea Rooms (the usual place for our public meetings) due to continuing Covid 19 social distancing restrictions imposed throughout Leicester City Council properties. However, the principal of Judgemeadow Community College, Mr Jason Smith, kindly allowed us to hold the event in their auditorium.
We used the occasion to invite a number of Voluntary Police Cadets and their leaders, together with pupils and their teachers from Judgemeadow, to receive certificates of achievement and recognition from our President, the Lord Mayor for the year 2021/2022, Councillor Deepak Bajaj.
During the pandemic, many of the young people in our organisations became part of our efforts to keep alive this friendship by undertaking various enterprises under the supervision of their adult leaders and teachers.
Members of the Voluntary Police Cadets became involved in designing and constructing model soapboxes for use in a joint town twinning exercise initiated by the Youth Community Leader of Krefeld. Seven of the City and County Voluntary Police Cadet Units took part and their individual soapbox models were shipped over to Krefeld where they were entered alongside other models from Venlo (Holland), Poznan (Poland) and Krefeld (Germany) in a ‘Virtual Soapbox Derby’. The resulting video was shown at the meeting. The ‘Cadburys’ model was chosen by the Krefeld Youth Department to be the winner of the models submitted by the Cadets.
Pupils from Judgemeadow Community College designed and created three different wooden lanterns, symbolising a ‘Beacon of Light’ to remind our European counterparts that they were in our thoughts. These were posted to all three of our twinned cities of Krefeld, Strasbourg and Haskovo and were well received.
The chair of CLETA, Fred Rankin, expressed his delight at how a number of the organisations had begun to make firm arrangements to meet up with their twinning partners during 2022 and renew their friendship. We heard from the Leicestershire Fire Service, the International Police Association, the Leicester Symphony Orchestra, Judgemeadow Community College, Leicester City Ladies Football Club and the Volunteers in Policing Organisation as to their plans for the coming year.
Following the meeting, the various recipients stepped up to receive their certificates from the Lord Mayor.
Voluntary Police Cadets and their leaders
Pupils, teachers and support staff from Judgemeadow Community College
