Steve Berry
A sad day with the passing of HRH Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh.
His vision, guided by Kurt Hahn and John Hunt, of an Award Scheme for young people which, through its flexibility, is designed to be achievable by all has had a great influence on my working life and continues today.
My first involvement with the Award was as a participant in 1969 starting my Bronze and then completing Silver two years later.
I never started Gold as I was concentrating on College and getting Outdoor qualifications but I stayed involved by helping others providing training for expeditions and assessed my first Bronze Expedition at 18 in 1973.
My involvement has mainly been a Local Authority role since 1980 as assessor, trainer and manager but I have also had the experience of being a member of a Wild Country Panel / Network and also working on Peak District Open Golds.
I had the pleasure of meeting HRH on several occasions at Award Ceremonies, Garden Parties and General Councils but my lasting memory will be of turning around suddenly at one event and accidently 'kicking' HRH in the shin.
As one of his protection staff moved into the area and thoughts of being locked up in the Tower went through my head he said simply 'sorry, my fault. I should look where I am going!'
He then talked to me for a few minutes about who I was and what I did much to the organisers annoyance as he was now behind in his schedule.
My continued work in introducing others to the outdoors has been based on his vision.
His vision, guided by Kurt Hahn and John Hunt, of an Award Scheme for young people which, through its flexibility, is designed to be achievable by all has had a great influence on my working life and continues today.
My first involvement with the Award was as a participant in 1969 starting my Bronze and then completing Silver two years later.
I never started Gold as I was concentrating on College and getting Outdoor qualifications but I stayed involved by helping others providing training for expeditions and assessed my first Bronze Expedition at 18 in 1973.
My involvement has mainly been a Local Authority role since 1980 as assessor, trainer and manager but I have also had the experience of being a member of a Wild Country Panel / Network and also working on Peak District Open Golds.
I had the pleasure of meeting HRH on several occasions at Award Ceremonies, Garden Parties and General Councils but my lasting memory will be of turning around suddenly at one event and accidently 'kicking' HRH in the shin.
As one of his protection staff moved into the area and thoughts of being locked up in the Tower went through my head he said simply 'sorry, my fault. I should look where I am going!'
He then talked to me for a few minutes about who I was and what I did much to the organisers annoyance as he was now behind in his schedule.
My continued work in introducing others to the outdoors has been based on his vision.
