| Seniors walk away from Course as Queensmen |
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15th February 2010
It doesn't seem like a year ago since we set off on the road towards being Queensmen by attending a Queen's Badge Leadership Course but after a year of hard work, we, the Seniors, can now call ourselves Queensmen after successfully completing the final Queen's Badge Course.
As part of the Queen's Badge, a boy must go on two Queen's Badge run courses, a Leadership Course and a Completion Course and in between do 30 Hours minimum Volunteer Work, Help out in some way in the Boys' Brigade and do a expedition, physical recreation activity and/or learn a new skill.
On the weekend of the 12-14th February we attended our Completion Course which is to tie up any loose ends with our Record Books and to learn some final vital skills which may come in handy as Queensmen in our Brigades. The focus was very much on teamwork and each of the Seniors were put into different groups with other lads from other companies and we had to work together on various activities like building a model bridge with constraints, preparing a debate on a given topic and looking at financial issues.
As part of the course as well, the boys had to give a presentation on a charity of their choice. Joe and Chris chose Oxfam, Phil did the British Red Cross while I did Christian Aid. There was also an opportunity with the upcoming General Election in May for boys to volunteer to give a speech on behalf of a political party, of which I chose to speak on behalf of Labour jointly with a member from our neighbouring 1st Elworth Company.
For the most part, the course was very enjoyable and we met lots of different lads who we've become friendly with and I feel that the rest of the Seniors would agree with me that we got a lot out of it, especially with our new status as Queensmen.
The experience of doing the Queen's Badge is by no means an easy one to endure. It has been hard work, it has taken hours to prepare the various sections and in some cases taken us miles to reach our final goal of attending the Completion Course and achieving the Queen's Badge. We've had to undertake expeditions, work for many hours on planning and doing our volunteer work and ultimately had to try and work together as Seniors to achieve this goal. I would like to use this opportunity to extend my own personal thanks to Rob Welch and John Quigley for their full support during the last year to help us achieve our Badge and also to extend my gratefulness to the parents and other people who have been a huge help in gaining the Queen's Badge award and I'm sure that as Seniors we'll be always thankful. I would however like to finally thank my fellow Seniors for the last year and the experiences we have had and the support we have given one another to achieve our goal and without the teamwork and effort of us all, I feel we would never have got on that course.
Although we've passed our Queen's Badge, we will have to wait until Sunday 16th May 2010 until we are presented our award by the Lord Lieutentant of Merseyside, Dame Lorna Muirhead at The Liverpool Road Methodist Church in Southport along with the other 12 boys who attended the Completion Course with us. It will be a very formal occasion and I feel the Seniors and the rest of 1st Haslington would agree it is something we very much look forward to.
Ryan Mellor