thanks to Ray Renton, 1st Dunrobin advisor,
for this report
On Friday October 12 2007, several Voyageur
Council Venturer companies that are enrolled in the Duke of
Edinburgh Award program, met HRH Prince Edward at the Ottawa Boys
and Girls Club in Britannia. Commonly called ‘The Duke of
Ed’ Award, the program is open to all youth 14 to 25 years
of age. www.dukeofed.org
Photos from Duke of Edinburgh web site
At the event, candidates worked on one of four aspects,
specifically (i) Community Service -correctly planting trees,
(ii) Skill- learned a hip-hop dance routine from the professional
dance company Culture Shock , (iii) Challenge -canoeing
techniques from MEC in the pool, or (iv) Creative - instruction
and actual painting of a mural. Prince Edward toured the
activities and met and spoke to a number of the participants.
There was an opportunity to display current youth activities of
the club, group or association. Venturers, proudly presented
their exhibits of diverse activities to HRH Prince Edward. They
included photographs and articles about various activities that
their Venturer companies had undertaken, participated in and
accomplished over the past year, of Outing Challenges, Community
Service events and just plain Fun Activities.
The focus of the Britannia event was to motivate youth in the
program, acknowledge their progress and afford a venue for the
sponsors, such as TD Canada Trust to announce extensive
additional funding for the Duke of Edinburgh Award program.
HRH Prince Edward took extra time to chat with each and every
leader who assist the youth and facilitate activities so the
youth can achieve the three levels of awards. The Prince was
inquisitive and took a genuine interest in the extreme range of
achievements of the youth that the award program has helped
stimulate.
The rare experience to meet HRH Prince Edward and other youth in
different aspects of the award program left a lasting positive
impression with the Venturers.