An old folks' home was spruced up by hard-working youngsters at the weekend. Children from the Island's Hands On Youth programme visited Pembroke Rest Home, in Parsons Road, on Saturday morning.

They cleaned windows, gardened, worked in the kitchen and even helped elderly female residents do their hair and make up.

Eugene Vickers, chairman of the Hands On Youth programme, said: "It went very well. We had something like 14 children attending ? boys and girls.

"They did all kinds of things and worked pretty hard. It was a nice morning."

The event was partly to raise sponsorship for a trip to the US in April. Mr. Vickers is taking the youngsters, aged 13 to 17 and from all nine parishes, to New Jersey and Baltimore to visit prisons and colleges and learn about street gangs.

"The aim of the programme is to give the kids an idea of where to go in life ? whether they want to be a policeman, a fire officer or whatever," he said.

"The kids volunteer themselves for the programme. It's a free programme but they must do the full course. They get a lot out of it."

Anyone interested in sponsoring the trip should call Mr. Vickers on 236-0829.