David Hollier Award
The David Hollier Award has been given jointly to Ayrshire Scouts, Andrew Baird and Cameron Hamil, who are undertaking a Scout Explorer Belt Award expedition in Romania. They will travel around Romania for 10 days where they will complete the many challenges which have been set – both major, i.e. finding out the differences between rural and city life, and minor i.e. dress in traditional national clothing for a period.
DYEG (Derbyshire Youth Exploration group)
Amy Fallon, a student at Stubbinwood Special School, Shirebrook, Derbyshire, will be a member of the third N.E Derbyshire Expedition, this time to South Africa working with local communities and conservation projects.
Everest Awards
The six recipients of Everest Awards are members of expeditions with conservation, community or science aims plus trekking: Alex Slaughter, a first year student at Birmingham University, will climb Kilimanjaro. Felicity Neal, an Abbey School, Reading student, will undertake environmental and community-based projects in remote mountain communities in Peru while Izzy Fountain will be a member of a Camps International expedition to Borneo where she will work on conservation and community projects. Another Camps International expeditioner is Oliver Wynne-Williams who will carry out community projects in Cambodia. Jessica Wray, BES Expedition to Peru, aims to do scientific research to track, record and monitor the distribution and ecology of the diverse wildlife in the rainforest. Bohunt School student, Sophia Boberg, is a member of their expedition to a more unusual destination, Azerbaijan, where they will be mapping the Trans Caucasian Mountain Trail.
Jim Bishop Award
Bethany Towell, on an expedition to Costa Rica where the community and conservation projects will push her out of her comfort zone.
John Hunt Award
This is a joint Award for Arifa Miah, Jason Cuesta and Samantha Wing, members of the Young Star Mentoring group in London who will be undertaking a three week expedition walking the Camino de Santiago trail in Northern Spain as part of a programme to help young people in care transit to independent living.
Vivian Fuchs Awards
Four awards have been made from the Sir Vivian Fuchs Awards Fund this year. They go to: Annabelle Corlett, who has a flair for languages (Spanish, French and Mandarin) and will use the former on her expedition to Ecuador; Ben McGregor will be in Tanzania climbing Mt Meru and undertaking wildlife conservation projects; Ruairidh McLeod comes from Nairn where he is very active in the Highlands of Scotland. He will be on the BES Indian Himalayan Expedition where he will be part of scientific projects studying the effect of climate change on local people, and climbing; Tia Luscombe who says that “small things like trying to get lost in the woods or swimming in rivers in the middle of nowhere are important to me, also scaling volcanoes and walking in deserts” will be furthering her experience in Borneo with Camps International.
Stephenson Expedition Award
The 2019 Award goes to the peer group Kayak Drina River Expedition. 4 students, led by Joe McDermott, from Ecclesbourne School in Derbyshire will canoe along the Drina River on the border between Bosnia and Serbia. KAYAK DRINA is a multidisciplinary research expedition to the Balkans, kayaking sections of the Drina, Sava & Danube rivers. Working with host-nation partners, this four-person, sixth-form team will conduct research into: plastic and heavy metals pollution; invasive mosquitoes; and impacts of civil war on youth opinions.