At its meeting of 21st October Anstruther Rotary Club was delighted to welcome Jack Wilson, 6th year student and deputy head boy at Waid Academy. Jack had been sponsored by the club to attend the week-long Rotary Youth Leadership Award course at the Abernethy Centre, Nethy Bridge in June and had returned to report on his experiences.

We enjoyed an excellent talk, illustrated with a first class video – although it must be said one or two in the audience looked slightly pale at the sight of some of the challenges!

About 80 boys attended the event, which aims to encourage team building, self-confidence and leadership skills. The course is based around outdoor events including hill walking in the Cairngorms, rock climbing, gorge walking, mountain biking, orienteering, bivouacking, canoeing, raft building and survival skills. It was clear that all the events are challenging!

The week is spent in teams of 8 to 10 and everyone has the opportunity to lead. Jack commented on how valuable this had been to him – the challenge of needing to mix with everyone in order to work together to achieve the team’s aim. Especially he gained in confidence by proving to himself that he could step up to a challenge and succeed. Words like ‘teamwork’ and ‘trust’ were mentioned many times.

With the day’s challenges over, there was also relaxation, fun and laughter, with games, quizzes and a number of social events.  Many friendships were made and Jack commented that he had ended up with life-long friends from a group that started the week as strangers.       

Following questions, club past president Roderick Skinner presented a certificate of achievement to Jack, together with warm congratulation and thanks for being such an outstanding representative of the club and of his school. Here we see Jack with Roderick and with Vice President Ian Brunton.