My Charity Weekend

A month ago, if you were to ask me how I was feeling on the Thursday, I would probably have spluttered my words out in an overly excited rush to explain my plans for the weekend; if you were ask me the same question a week later, I would have grumbled something about not being able to move my arms, shoulders, or any other part of my body for that matter. Fortunately, there was a reason for this - the BTC had teamed up with Raleigh International, a charity focussed on developing local communities, to help with the regeneration of a public footpath and picnic area that had fallen victim to fly-tipping and anti-social behaviour rendering it unusable, and I had been lucky enough to secure a position on the event.

These charity weekends allow grads to put something back into the community, whilst providing the chance to hone team work and team leadership skills in a diverse environment. It was a strenuous three days of blood, sweat, and fortunately not so many tears, running from first thing Friday morning right through to Sunday afternoon, accompanied by two 7am wake-up calls and one very late evening; needless to say I was recovering in more than one way the following Thursday!

The project itself consisted of three assignments; clearing out an opening and installing a picnic area, laying out a 200m path through the centre of the woods, and digging a 1ft by 1ft trench running for 100m that would soon be a hedgerow to prevent motorbikes getting up into the woods. On the Friday morning, 23 keen workers, 19 of which were young graduates at the peak of physical fitness, descended on sunny Guildford to make a start on the generous amount of regeneration work that had been set. The weekend was physically exhausting but a great opportunity to catch up with fellow BTCers and exercise some project management skills as team leaders were assigned every half-day; needless to say we completed all three assignments.

The accommodation matched the weekend perfectly – a serene retreat surrounded by fields and woodland, complete with BBQ, fire pit and facilities to cater for 20+ residents. Evening activities were very much ad-hoc, and usually consisted of late night (glow-in-the-dark) Frisbee, cooking, barbequing, (lots of) washing up, fire-stoking and the odd trip to the local pub, all with a very relaxed atmosphere meaning you could do as much or as little as you wanted. Sleeping in dorms of up to 10, barbequing for 23 people and surrounding the fire to keep warm later in the evening, ‘rustic’, the word of the weekend, best summarises everything about the accommodation.

All in all, an incredibly satisfying, beneficial and enjoyable weekend – I would personally recommend joining the grad scheme just to get the chance to get involved in one of these events with such a great team!

Feel free to check out the photos by clicking here.

Until next time…

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Kewl you should come up with that. Ecexllent! # Posted By Bonner | 5/7/11 5:42 AM