Today I hosted a visit from the Base 25 Youth Action Team from Wolverhampton. This is a newly formed group of young people who aim to encourage others in and around Wolverhampton to get involved in volunteering. The Youth Action Team is still being put together by Base 25, who do a wide range of work in support of the local youth. Today was intended as an opportunity for this new group to get to know each other and have a bit of fun along the way.
We met up at Pant in the morning to go rock climbing at Llanymynech Quarry. It’s about a 5-10 minute walk from the car park to the crag itself, which provided a fantastic opportunity for me to start to chat with folk. Once the climbs were set up and helmets and harnesses safely on, it was time to start climbing. It’s always interesting to see different people approach to climbing. Some love it and just want to go for it. Others are hesitant and only climb a short way. Some are very nervous and, although they don’t really want to, force themselves to go as far as they physically can. My approach is to allow each individual to make up their own mind as to how far they want to push themselves, and I think we had people that fell into all 3 categories today. We also had everyone belaying, and it was good to see how seriously they took the responsibility of ensuring the safety of the climber. It’s certainly a good way of developing trust in a group that don’t know each other very well.
Llanymynech also has a fantastic spot for an abseil, so it didn’t seem right to leave without at least giving the guys the opportunity to walk backwards off a cliff! Just over half the group decided to give it a go and, as is normally the case, I think I saw smiles on every face once the hard part of getting over the edge was complete.
It was then a case of a quick dash back to Ellesmere to pick up the canoes ready for a paddling session on The Mere. Once on the water, we spent about half an hour trying to get the boats to do what we wanted them to before playing a few games. Any game needs rules to make it work properly, but improvised paddling games normally have an absolute minimum to create the ‘spirit’ of the game. Today, it was the adult leaders who took advantage of the ‘loop holes’ in the rules, much to the bemusement of everyone else – very funny!
Given the fact that one of the main aims of the day was to develop communication and trust amongst this new team, is seemed the obvious excuse to spend the last half hour or so giving the guys challenges that required just those things. As with the rock climbing, everyone could opt out of any challenge they didn’t fancy but most gave at least one or two a go. I guess it must be a testament to their teamwork that no one fell in, even if they did end up soaked from excessive splashing.
From my point of view, it was quite a long day but fantastic fun to work with such a great group of guys. However, at the end of the day, it’s all about whether it was a good day for them – I certainly hope so.
