They’ve been at it again and boy did they enjoy it! Have they put you to shame?

Yes Skills Tank students have done it again and what a princely sum they’ve raised £303.00 for Sports Relief – there’s no stopping them – what’s next?

Now that’s a good question and you’ll have to keep coming back to the Skills Tank blog to find out – but one thing is for sure, they haven’t finished yet!

How do I know?  Well it’s all in the learning, the creation of self-belief and the joy of giving – please let me explain; as part of the students’ progress with us, we try to make exercise an enjoyable part of our activities.

Now if we were to say “today we are off to do some exercise most students would groan and turn their noses up but if we link walking into the work we do with Wildlife Trusts (more to come on this in a later blog post) and some of our community-based activities because it’s fun and interesting everybody, well nearly all the students, say “yes”.

You may recall from a previous post, Skills Tank students raised £600 by helping Rotary over Christmas, even though it was cold, wet, windy they did a great job really enjoying it – so much so they loved the idea that they could help people.

In discussing this, the idea of creating a way to raise money for Sports Relief was born.  Linking sport to exercise and exercise to walking a sponsored walk was the obvious choice and with a resounding yes vote from the students, it was game on.

Amazingly this whole idea creates a fabulous, fun and practical learning exercise for the students – as we have to get an application form which involves using a computer, download the forms, fill them in, buy stamps and send off the forms. We need to plan a safe route and people to help, there are road safety skills to brush up on and a buddy system to agree so that no one walks alone nor feels left out.  This is all done together building team spirit and communication skills.

Did the students enjoy it – can you see smiling faces in the pictures? Are these happy words?

Melissa saysI loved being out in the fresh air with my friends. I liked that I could raise money for people who were in trouble and weren’t able to go somewhere like Care First, it made me feel really good

“I really enjoyed doing the walk and we raised lots of money to help people in this country and abroad. I would have liked to walk further though!!! And I would definitely like to do it again but next time raise more money!!!” says Max

Hannah commented “I really enjoyed it as it meant that I could walk and chat with my friends whilst raising money. I would definitely like to do it again. I am also doing a swimathon for sports relief this weekend on my own”

Fabulous! What’s next?