Joy Redfern
I was just reflecting on the difference between my silver award expedition back in 1982 and those of my sons much more recently.
For mine, there were only two of us doing D of E and we persuaded 3 friends to come along for the expedition - thanks Hilary, Sandra and Tracey! We borrowed bright orange rucksacks from the school and scraped together the rest of the equipment, but had a great time walking in the Purbeck Hills in Dorset.
In contrast, both my sons had to opportunity to do canoeing for their expedition. They had excellent training, and all the right equipment, and thoroughly enjoyed the Wye Valley by canoe.
However, the common thread was having the opportunity to get away from normal life and do something different. In both cases there were some great volunteers to train and support the expedition teams, and a great deal of thanks goes to all of them. Of course this would not have been possible without the D of E programme itself and the foresight of the Duke of Edinburgh in setting this up and sponsoring it over so many years. For this, a big thank you.
For mine, there were only two of us doing D of E and we persuaded 3 friends to come along for the expedition - thanks Hilary, Sandra and Tracey! We borrowed bright orange rucksacks from the school and scraped together the rest of the equipment, but had a great time walking in the Purbeck Hills in Dorset.
In contrast, both my sons had to opportunity to do canoeing for their expedition. They had excellent training, and all the right equipment, and thoroughly enjoyed the Wye Valley by canoe.
However, the common thread was having the opportunity to get away from normal life and do something different. In both cases there were some great volunteers to train and support the expedition teams, and a great deal of thanks goes to all of them. Of course this would not have been possible without the D of E programme itself and the foresight of the Duke of Edinburgh in setting this up and sponsoring it over so many years. For this, a big thank you.
