After much thought, deliberation and planning we in Inverness, Ardersier & Nairn managed to do not one but two events for MADD! Firstly 3 junior youth, along with 3 adults visited a local nursing home. Many of the residents of this home are elderly, frail and have some stage of dementia. Some of them rarely get regular visitors and welcomed their new visitors on Sunday 5th November. First of all Carol played the harp, she was a little nervous, as she is still a learner – but played lovely nonetheless. After the musical entertainment the junior youth spent some time just chatting to a couple of the residents and showed them a collection of their photos. Although they were initially a bit uneasy, as this situation was new to them, the junior youth really enjoyed the time they spent at the Nursing Home. Not only did they make a difference to the lives of the residents, they made a difference to themselves, just by sparing a little time for someone else. They are all keen to go back to the Nursing Home again and hopefully future visits will be possible. It would be great if they could ‘Make a Difference’ not just for one day but for many times in the future. The second event was not officially for ‘Make a Difference Day’ because the event did not happen within the allocated two weeks for MADD – but the opportunity initially came about in connection with MADD. Our Junior Youth along with one of our youth, received 2 hours basic life saving skills training with Red Cross. They learned how to put someone in the recovery position, how to do CPR and how to put on a bandage it someone was injured. To put these newfound skills into action they spent the afternoon on Saturday 18th November helping Red Cross to promote their recent campaign called ‘Life. Live it’ campaign. The campaign aims to promote first aid knowledge and skills among 13-19 year olds, and calls on the government to increase first aid education in schools. They spent all afternoon with Dave the Red Cross Youth & Schools Manager, in Vue Cinema, demonstrating CPR, the recovery position and bandaging everyone in sight, while 2 adults handed out leaflets. We all had a great time and one of our junior youth has even decided to join the Red Cross as a Volunteer to learn more First Aid. Our two volunteering projects were really successful. In a society where kids increasingly have so much ‘entertainment’ laid on for them it was really good for our junior youth to be doing something for others with no thought of reward or what was in it for them. We shall definitely be volunteering as a group again…….and the next project is ‘CSV Action Earth 2007’ – so watch this space for further news of our volunteering escapades!!! To see more photos of our junior youth/youth volunteering go the 'Join our Youth Page' To find our more about CSV, Make a Difference Day and Action Earth 2007 you can click on the external link below.