Scout volunteer completes her DofE award while in lockdown

The Youth Commission, which manages the scheme, said they have been thrilled to hear from many young people who have taken it upon themselves to find ways to continue their DofE award while sticking to lockdown restrictions, including Jenny Hutchins who volunteers at the 1st Guernsey Sea Scouts.

Jenny said they had still been creating challenges for themselves to accomplish despite physical meetings coming to a halt.

‘The scout group that I volunteer for as a young leader has been trying to do an event every week,’ she said.

‘We have done a fitness challenge, an expedition challenge, a quiz challenge and so much more.

‘The mission for the leaders is to turn normal scouting activities into something achievable for the scouts in their homes.

‘We mainly communicate using a Facebook group, which means people can post pictures of their attempts at the activities. It makes it feel like we are still doing things as a group even though we’re separated.’

Activities recently organised include a camp from home that joined in with a global project.

‘The event had thousands of scouts all camping at the same time,’ said Jenny.

‘The response from the scouts and parents was very positive – about 15 young people took part – we set them three challenges, to create and sleep in a tent, to cook some food and to build a flagpole.

‘The scouts were inventive with their responses, especially with constructing their tents as many didn’t have a normal tent to put up.’

She added it was really important to keep scouts going to stop them from being isolated.

‘Personally I’ve found that the huge variety in the activities that we do at scouts keeps me motivated to try something different,’ she said.

‘A few weeks ago, the challenge was to make a scout woggle [used to fasten a neckerchief or scarf].

‘We had everything from tennis balls to Lego to nerf gun bullets being used and we are currently contributing to a Liberation Day newsletter, that our group scout leader is sending to a former group leader, who is now in a care home.’

The Youth Commission’s DofE manager, Rebecca Silk, said they were impressed with the number of young people who have been able to complete their award during this time.

‘We are delighted to see so many young people continuing to work creatively to find new ways to achieve their award during lockdown,’ she said.

‘Jenny is a brilliant example of someone finding a way to continue giving back to the community through her DofE award.

‘So far, we’ve had eight bronze, one silver and five golds completed since lockdown began in March.’

n To contact the team from the Youth Commission with any questions, phone 756099 or email Rebecca.silk@youthcommission.gg.