Scouts from across Berkshire were granted special access to Buckingham Palace for a special celebration of those young people who achieved their Gold Duke of Edinburgh’s Award.
HRH The Duke of Edinburgh requested the pleasure of their company with a formal invitation to the celebrations, which allowed the recipients and their guests to enjoy the stunning Buckingham Palace Garden and a day to remember.
The order of events included several guest speakers, musical accompaniments from military bands, photo opportunities, as well as a speech from His Royal Highness, The Duke of Edinburgh, brother of His Majesty The King and youngest child of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh.
A key theme for the occasion was resilience, which is at the core of the DofE programme. That message was echoed on stage by Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson, former Paralympic athlete and Chair of Trustees at DofE, and 20-year-old sea cadet Miles who recounted his own DofE journey to the crowd.
His Royal Highness, himself a Gold DofE achiever, rounded out the ceremony before spending time speaking to the participants and their guests completing a lengthy queue around the gardens.
One of the Berkshire Scouts recipients, Aisling, who did her Scouting at Taceham Hundred, reflected on her experience in a chat by the stairs of the Palace after the main speech.
“I am surprised by how many people are here,” she said. “It’s interesting to see the different young people from all walks of life just having a wonderful time in celebration of their Gold award. I didn’t know His Royal Highness had done gold but from his talk and listening to the Baroness, it’s fascinating to hear how doing Gold DofE can set up prospects for bigger and better things.”
Chris, who did his Scouting at 73rd Reading and East Reading Explorers added: “It’s been pretty cool to be able to say I’ve been into the gardens of Buckingham Palace, seeing all these famous people and meeting everyone I did my DofE with. I have seen Dr Amil Patel, who was very inspiring, and I’m going to see Alistair Petrie, because I liked him in Andor.”
Joshua, from 1st Purley & Pangbourne, reflected on his DofE journey and chatting to TV and radio personality Roman Kemp: “The award played a key part in developing resilience and team building skills for my future professional career, as well as building confidence and adventure seeking for outside it. Today’s event included an insightful talk from Roman Kemp with a particular focus on the importance of mental health. It was great to speak to him and good of him to spend so much time engaging with us.”
Mental preparation was one aspect that speaker Alistair Petrie discussed during his talk that particularly resonated with award recipient Ed from Pang Valley: “His talk was very motivational but one of the parts I took away from it was him saying that mental strength is 90% and physical only 10% in relation to physical challenge. I think it fits so well into DofE and shows everyone at the celebration how hard mentally they have had to challenge themselves to complete Gold.”
Emily from 1st Maidenhead Sea Explorerd, who completed her Gold just in time for the 25-year-old limit, was equally impressed by the occasion: “It’s been wonderful, they have such gorgeous gardens. I’ve just been wandering around enjoying the view. You can’t tell we’re in the centre of London at all,” she said.
Emily also looked back at her journey through Scouting and doing DofE. “The expeditions were definitely the highlight. I was very lucky in my group to have high moral throughout even getting soaking wet in the pouring rain. You don’t often get that feeling when you are in a miserable situation but just making the best of it, having a laugh and taking whatever happens as it comes.”
She also advised budding DofE participants to keep on top of the admin! “Do your paperwork!” she said. “I am over 25 now, I gave in my paperwork on my birthday on the deadline; because I was so bad at the paperwork, I ended up having to split my DofE and my King’s Scout Award, which meant double the work! It’s a good job I enjoy the expeditions!”
Chris’s advice for anyone expeditions: pack extra socks. Aisling also cited the expeditions as her favourite experience. “I really enjoyed the expedition; there’s nothing better than being on top of mountain and looking out, feeling exhausted and seeing the world beyond what you see every day. It’s incredible.”
Emma, another recipient from Taceham, adopted a project-based approach to her expedition, tailored to her specific needs,
“Gold DofE has boosted my confidence loads,” she said. “I spoke to people I didn’t know and went on an expedition for four days with people I didn’t know. On my expedition we explored local towns and costal paths, we went on some larger hikes & smaller hikes, but journeyed and explored, we made a little diary and quote book for each day which was quite fun. It was a great experience and very different to anything I have ever experienced before.”
Well done to all those who picked up their Gold DofE in the past year, you’ve done the county proud!
