Duke of Edinburgh Gold Winners!

Published: Wednesday, 2nd June, 2010 9:49am

A golden year for Lornshill quartet
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Former Lornshill Academy pupils Jack Fowler, Ian McCall, David Hodgkinson and Louise McLeod have all achieved the Gold Award.

A QUARTET of former Lornshill Academy pupils have the golden touch after achieving their Gold Duke of Edinburgh's Award.

These are the first Gold Awards to involve Lornshill pupils for over 30 years.

Louise MacLeod, Jack Fowler, David Hodgkinson and Iain McCall have achieved their awards by tackling a wide range of activities over the past 18 months.

They worked tirelessly through the five sections of their Duke of Edinburgh's programme, completing activities in Volunteering, Skills, Physical Recreation, Residential and Expedition.

All four of them worked on the expedition section of their awards together with the quartet doing a walking expedition at Bronze level, a canoeing expedition at Silver level and a gruelling 150 mile cycle round the north/west of Scotland last summer at Gold level.

Among the tasks completed by Louise were learning photography, raising £1400 in order to go to The Gambia earlier this year where she helped to refurbish a skills centre and five days sailing off the west coast of Scotland with the Ocean Youth Trust Scotland, assisting visually impaired youngsters.

Many participants in the Duke of Edinburgh's Award use their existing hobbies and interests to complete tasks. A keen member of the Boys' Brigade, Jack achieved his Volunteer section through his work with the Anchor Boys while his Residential was spent at BB's annual camp.

Keen Scouts David and Iain learned cycle maintenance for their Skill section and worked as young leaders with the Beavers for their Volunteering section.

They were also amongst a contingent of 56 Scouts from Forth Valley who went to Namibia last year where they helped to install a water pipe supplying around 400 people.

The four, who have now left Lornshill, were supported throughout their task by Duke of Edinburgh's Award Leader and Lornshill teacher Emma Dawson.

Emma said, "I'm so proud of Louise, Jack, David and Iain and it's been a pleasure to see them through this whole process.

"They were the first Duke of Edinburgh participants I brought together when I first started at Lornshill. It is a first for me to have pupils complete three different expeditions and these are the first Gold Awards at Lornshill for decades."

The four Gold Award recipients attended the Clackmannanshire Awards Advisory Committee AGM last week.

Depute Provost Harry McLaren, who also attended the AGM, said, "Achieving your Gold Award is a big deal so my congratulations go to Louise, Jack, David and Iain.

"The Gold Award shows that you have the skills, determination and mentality to really succeed and I'm sure they will take these abilities into their lives after Lornshill."

The four will now be invited to attend a Gold Award Presentation at Holyrood Palace on Friday 16 July 2010.

They will be joined by the six other local teenagers who achieved their Gold Awards within the past 12 months.

Two Duke of Edinburgh's Open Award Groups operate in Clackmannanshire and they are keen to hear from interested young people aged between 14 - 24.

To find out more contact the Duke of Edinburgh's Award Development Officer Michael Clark on 763959.