Businesses and community groups stick up for young people in Henley
Businesses, community groups and private individuals have stepped up to support the Henley Youth Festival in its 21st year. HYF is thought to be the only Youth Festival of its kind in the UK funded entirely by local sponsorship and run by volunteers. In December HYF made an appeal to over 100 businesses in the town and so far over a dozen new sponsors and private donors have come forward to offer their support either in cash or in kind. All sponsors will be able to display the new HYF ‘Sticking Up for Young People’ window sticker.
THOUGHT by design, Henley-based brand and digital specialists, have created a new website for HYF. The original website was built by Signals and supported by them for more than 10 years but a change in their business priorities meant a new supporter was needed. Sarah Haynes, Co-Director of THOUGHT by design, explains, “As parents of young children who we hope will take part in HYF in future we were very happy to offer our professional expertise to support it. The website is the ‘shop window’ for the Festival and we’ve aimed for an interactive, visually interesting site that is easy to navigate for both parents and children.”
OakTree Wealth Management, an award-winning wealth management company, stepped in to fund the printing of the HYF programme. Jeremy Arthur, Co-founder and Director and Henley parent said, “Our children have taken part in HYF almost since it began 21 years ago. We appreciate how important it is to invest in young people and we are pleased to be able to support the programme which ensures every child attending school in the town knows what’s happening during HYF.”
Dragonflies Montessori Nursery, Simmons & Sons, Davis Tate, Southern Plant Hire , Kench & Co Ltd, D J Dawes (Farms) Ltd, Denning Montessori School, Associated Holdings Ltd, Houdret & Company and community groups Henley Roundtable and Henley Lions have all offered new sponsorship. They join established sponsors Stonor House and Higgs Group – sponsoring the Stonor Run, HEDFAS – sponsoring the art workshop programme in schools, Bell Book Shop – sponsoring the writing competition, Henley Royal Regatta – sponsoring a grand piano at the Kenton during HYF week, Henwood & Dean – sponsoring Gig Night, Henley Education Trust - sponsoring the non-art programme of workshops in schools and Henley Rotary Club – sponsoring professional technicians for the performing arts.
Lucie Henwood, co-chair of HYF said, “ Local businesses and groups have really got behind HYF this year. We are very grateful to all our sponsors – the new and the long-standing ones. It seems many of them are very happy to support young people in Henley through HYF and that’s wonderful. The more funding we have, the more opportunities and experiences we can include in our programme”. It is not too late for businesses and individuals to show their support and anyone else interested in sponsoring HYF can contact Lucie Henwood on hyfinfo@gmail.com.
