Rotary Leadership Youth Award - April 2019

From 7-12 April, I attended the Rotary Youth Leadership Award, which was held at the Surrey Outdoor Learning and Development Centre. My parents dropped me off and I felt scared because I didn’t know anybody else who was going. We started the first night by introducing ourselves to other people and playing ice breaker games, including People Bingo where we found out who had driven a tractor, who plays musical instruments and much more. We were then welcomed into the log cabins, which was our home for the week. We made ‘cabin contracts’ in our rooms.

On Monday morning, we attempted the high ropes course, which included Trapezium, where we have to climb 20 feet into the air and jump and try and hold onto a hanging metal pole; Jacob’s ladder, a wooden ladder with each rung a meter apart and Crate Stack, where we had to make a stack of crates as high as possible whilst standing on them. On a rainy Tuesday morning, we travelled to Thames Young Mariners, where we spent the day kayaking and raft building. Our raft luckily didn’t sink, unlike many others! On Wednesday morning, we set off early to complete our hike, which we planned the night before. During the day, we walked 15 kilometres, burning 2400 calories, whilst completing different challenges along the way. In the evening, we hosted a Gala dinner for the staff and the Rotarians who sponsored us. On Thursday morning, we went on the climbing wall, where we could see the Surrey Hills. In the evening, we went to see ‘Rip It Up the 60s’ in the West End. The production starred Louis Smith, Jay McGuiness and Harry Jud. After packing on Friday morning, we began planning our presentation for the parents and sponsoring Rotarians. Each group presented about a day in the week. Our team won the ‘Golden Paddle Award’, which is an award we won for having the best team work and raft building skills.

My favourite part of the week was meeting a variety of different people which I wouldn’t have normally met. I made some new friends, who in such a short space of time have become really close. Throughout the whole week, we learnt many people skills, including learning about friendships and team work. I would like to thank Mrs Collinson and the Rotary Club of Fleet for sponsoring and organising this amazing experience.

Sebastien F-S, S01

(Sebastien also gave a presentation to the Rotary Club about this trip at Northants Golf Club in September)