JanineJunior Sports Hub held one of its Play Street events on the 30th of August on Ashton Road, outside of the Junior Sports Hub facility. There were stalls brimming with amazing products from local people and businesses, charities getting the word out, and both the police and the fire brigade had stalled, too. There was fun and games on the road and a bouncy castle for some high-energy fun.
In the garden area, among ripening tomatoes and apples ready to drop, people gathered to chill and chat while volunteers were hard at work barbecuing up a storm. It’s an amazing green oasis in the heart of the tarmac and red brick housing.
My niece was particularly taken with crafting her own custom t-shirt, as were a lot of kids at the Leeds Youth Service East North East van, always a popular stall at Play Streets.
Though the clouds tried to gather, and the wind tried and failed to blow away the fun, the good weather held as long as the good times did.
The event was capped off with the grand opening of Cafe Gap Shap (Cafe Chit Chat), Junior Sports Hub’s very own cafe in the heart of Harehills.
The Cafe looks amazing, tastefully decorated and furnished, with a library of books along the wall. It’s a fantastic transformation of the space into a light, airy and welcoming.
Talking with a volunteer at Junior Sports Hub after the event, he told me that it had been a lot of difficult work to create the cafe, but he was immensely proud and overjoyed at how much visitors seem to love the place. Judging by the reaction of people I heard, he’s not wrong; people think this is an amazing space and tremendous for the community.
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