The Duke of Edinburgh

The goal of the Duke of Edinburgh’s program is to promote lifelong improvement for all young Canadians through personal development and community involvement. There are 3 levels to the award, with each level having an incrementally larger time commitment. For the most part, as a Brentwood student, you are already completing three of the four sections of the awards. The final part of the award, the journey, can be completed through Outdoor Pursuits, or a summer trip with family or friends.   Recently, Brentwood has seen one of its students achieve the Bronze level of the award. Beginning in April of last year, Christopher completed the service, skill and physical activity portions of the award here at Brentwood and on his summer vacation. For the Adventurous Journey, though, he had a challenge. His excellent tennis skills made enrolling in ODP impossible, and camping is not an activity his family partakes in. So he made the decision to ask Joe K and me for help in executing his adventurous journey. He needed to do a one night, two day trip to qualify for his award, and I think that is exactly what he had in mind when he asked.  Joe and I, along with Will S, decided if one night is good enough then three nights would be way better – and spending three nights on the West Coast in December is a very quiet time, since no one else is stupid enough to even try it. But that’s what we did, and Christopher completed his very first camping trip ever with the three of us who felt like kids in a candy store – lots of cold, wet weather to survive, grueling, muddy trails for the whole 30 kilometer section of the Juan de Fuca Trail, and some of the toughest terrain that the West Coast has to offer.   We left early on the first morning of the December holiday – and although Christopher may not have known it, the weather forecast was exactly as the rest of us had hoped – large storm systems forecast to make landfall throughout the four days we would be out there.  I want to publicly congratulate Chris on this achievement. Christopher’s journey was the extreme end of the spectrum; it does not have to be in the winter, it can be during the summer and under way more favourable conditions. If you have any questions about the award and what it involves, don’t hesitate to ask me, Mr. Norman, Ms. Olszewski, or any of the students that are currently working on the award, or, alternatively, you can check out their website. http://www.dukeofed.org/bc Jacob N, Whittall ‘16