It’s been decided that the South Downs will gain National Park status, which is great news seeing as it’s such a beautiful place to visit and a wonderful natural location for outdoor education. Cobnor is ideally located down on the South Coast, near Chichester, to take advantage of the South Downs and all it offers.

The Sussex Wildlife Trust Youth Council has organised a special event to mark the occasion of the South Downs becoming a National Park with a youth walk. They’re calling on all young people aged 10-18 years to join a five mile walk along the South Downs Way, where they’ll have the chance to discover a range of fascinating landscapes and wildlife and get involved in some outdoor education en route.

As we’ve a lot of 10-18 year olds from the local area visiting Cobnor Activities Centre to attend everything from Summer Camps to sailing lessons we thought you might be interested in joining in with the South Downs National Park celebrations. There are three walks to choose from:

• Western Sussex (near Amberley)
• Central Sussex (near Brighton)
• Eastern Sussex (Seven Sisters Country Park)

All walkers should register online by Sunday 27th June 2010. Under 16s should be accompanied by an adult or book onto a guided walk.

Find out more about orienteering, mountain biking and the other land-based offered by Cobnor Activities Centre here.

Cobnor Activities Centre is in the middle of a major building and re-furbishment project which will include ‘green energy’ solar heating for all the hot water and a ground source heat pump for space heating the new building. 

The project will transform Cobnor Activities Centre, which is used primarily by children and young people in our community for a whole variety of outdoor activities, including sailing, canoeing, mountain biking, rock climbing, orienteering, camping,  to name but a few.

We need now to equip the dormitories and the new multi-functional classroom for when Cobnor Activities Centre re-opens in April 2010.

We need 15 sets of bunk beds @ £182 each, 54 mattresses @ £48.50 each, 10 classroom tables @ £96 each, 40/50 classroom chairs @ £11.50 each, 20/30 laptop computers @ £350 each and a variety of curtains and blinds for the dormitories costing  about £5/6,000.

Please can you sponsor us by offering to fund the purchase of an item of equipment?

You can send your donation to: Barry Colgate at Flood Cottage, Bosham Lane, Bosham, West Sussex PO18 8HY. If you would like any further information please contact him on 01243 576750 or barry@colgates.biz . If you are a tax payer you can increase the value of your donation by completing and returning the Gift Aid form.