Home : News : Avon Scouts rise to the challenge of an Icelandic adventure
Avon Scouts rise to the challenge of an Icelandic adventure
29/07/2009
Four Scouts from Avon, Mark Gascoigne, Stephen Grigg, Ian Maybury and Christopher Norris joined up with 3000 16 to 25-year-olds from around Europe to take part in an adventure of a lifetime.
The Scouts were there as part of the UK contingent to the international Scout camp, Roverway 2009.
Their time in Iceland was split between a four day journey taking in Iceland’s spectacular natural scenery; a community project, that saw the Scouts helping to build fences and pathways, and a central camp where all 3000 Scouts joined together for fun and environmental learning.
As part of this work, Scouts from the UK linked up via the web with Ed Miliband, UK Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, to contribute to a discussion on how young people from across the Europe could reduce the impact of climate change.
'Seeing the glacier was jaw dropping'
The activities undertaken by the team included visiting a glacier, seeing how rapidly it was melting.
Mark said, 'Seeing the glacier was jaw dropping. The water was so cold it took my breath away. It would be really sad if we did not take action to stop this disappearing. I have been to Iceland twice now and I want to bring my friends back in future years to see these wonderful sights. We must stop global warming.'
Scouts from Italy, Spain, the USA, France and Germany joined those from Avon. They spent some of their adventure exploring ice caves in glaciers in the Skaftafell National Park. They were wowed by Iceland’s spectacular scenery.
Nigella from Corsica said, 'Iceland is the most amazing place. At the start of the event we went on a hike around Iceland and we had to deal with rain, sleet and sun all in one day!'
Heidi McConnell, the UK expedition leader said, 'I have had an amazing time. I have never lead a contingent of over 100 young people before in such an environment. It’s been hard work but very rewarding. It’s great to see so many young people taking on some fantastically rugged country and rising to the challenge. I am confident that what they learn here they will take home with them.'
About Scouting and Roverway
Activities undertaken on Roverway 2009 include ice climbing, white water rafting, glacier walking, volcano climbing, hiking, community construction projects, cultural exchanges, whale watching and canoeing in the artic ocean.
Adventure is at the core of Scouting, and the Association passionately believes in helping their Members fulfil their full physical, intellectual social and spiritual potentials by working in teams, learning by doing and thinking for themselves.
Over 200 activities are offered by Scouting around the UK, made possible by the efforts of 100,000 adult volunteers. This has helped make Scouting the largest co-educational youth Movement in the country.
One of the challenges that the Scout Movement faces is finding more volunteers to plug the current gap. At present there are nearly 36,000 young people on waiting lists.
Adults working in Scouting contribute in excess of 295 million hours of voluntary work each year to their local communities.
The number of volunteers working for Scouting is bigger than the combined workforces of the BBC (24,000) and McDonalds (67,000) put together.
Worldwide Scouting has 28 million members both male and female and operates in nearly every country in the world.
Find out more about volunteering for Scouting
Comments
|
|
|
Search
