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Venture Scouts : Venture Scout News

This years Explorer Belt happened in Sweden & Denmark from 11^th – 26^th July 2009.  Teams flew from Dublin to Copenhagen and from here were taken to their drop points in Sweden by Train.  It was then that the adventure began.

Each team had to walk a minimum of 200km to arrive back to base camp in Denmark on Tuesday 21^st July.  They could travel an extra 100km using certified public transport and this was broken into 10km per day.  Along the way, teams had to keep a log book of each of the days events including people they interacted with, budgets, menu, route taken etc…  They also had to complete a number of prescribed challenges along the way and keep a record of these in their project books.  This year there was a new element to the belt introduced – The Personal Challenges.  These were devised before the expedition by each participant and agreed with the Expedition Leader.  The idea of these challenges was to encourage each participant to focus on an area of themselves that they would like to improve.  The areas were broken into the S.P.I.C.E.S.  These proved to be a very interesting and worthwhile addition to the event.

Following the 11 days that the teams were on the road, they arrived back to base camp on the 11^th.  They were greeted by the staff of the belt, base camp & assessment teams.  Teams arrived back tired but full of stories and were looking forward to the BBQ that evening.

On Wednesday the contingent was taken into Copenhagen for the day.  While here they got to meet the Irish Ambassador to Sweden, explore the shops of Copenhagen, and were taken to a fun park ‘Tivoli Gardens’.   While the teams were off site, the assessment teams started the process of reading the logbooks & projects, checking mileage and reviewing the Personal Challenges.  The assessment teams went through all the materials very carefully.  Each teams had to then take part in two reviews with the assessment teams to discuss their experiences, clarify any outstanding issues and review their personal challenges.  These reviews started on Thursday evening and went on late into the night, they recommenced on Friday morning and again went on into the night.  Some teams think this is the worst part, waiting around to be called for the chat.  The assessment teams enjoyed hearing the stories of the belt and being able to share in some way the experiences each of the teams had.  The Chief Scout, Michael John Shinnick and Chief Commissioner Youth Programme, Kiernan Gildea joined the contingent and enjoyed listening to the stories of the Belt from the participants.

Saturday was a relaxing day.  Ahead of the awards dinner, some Belters decided to head to the beach, while others fancied a trip to the local town for a nice lunch, I think nerves had started to creep back in at this stage.  The awards dinner was upon us before we knew it and the nerves were very clear.  The teams had no idea who had been successful in keeping their belts.  Each of the Belters knew they had a belt at the start & it was up to them to do the work to keep it.  After the dinner the Chief Commissioner Youth Programme, Kiernan Gildea spoke about the meaning of the Explorer Belt, the journey each of the participants had taken part in and how they should take their experiences forward.  The Chief Scout, Michael John Shinnick said that it was a wonderful achievement for all the Venture Scouts and something they will relish for the rest of their Scouting life.  Tensions and emotions were running high when they results were read out and when it was announced that all teams had been successful in keeping their Belt there was a huge sigh of relief.  This was the first year every team had been successful.  The Chief Scout said "It was a credit to the participants and indeed the organisers that all teams were successful this year".  He went on to thank Expedition Leader Louis Mullee, Ian Davy (Programme Commissioner for National events), Ruth Wylie (Venture Scout Programme Commissioner), Jim McIlduff (Assessment Team Lead) and indeed all the staff of the Explorer Belt.

Following a party and celebrations it was time to get ready for the trip home.  The contingent flew from Copenhagen on Sunday, everyone smiling at the fact that this Explorer Belt group had been so successful.  They were greeted in Dublin Airport to cheers from their families, Venture Scout Leaders and friends.  This will be indeed something that this group of Venture Scouts will remember for the rest of their lives.

Well done from Scouting Ireland.  We are proud of you…

Belt Teams 2009