Team bonding at Auchengillan for The Princes Trust Team
13 Dec 2010
Beginning in September myself and a group of 14 others aged between 16 and 47 years old have been involved with the Princes Trust Program. The Program which is based here at Cardonald College and run by the Princes Trust, aims to help develop the skills of its participants through team work and self evaluation. We help the community through projects and challenges and we see these tasks all the way through; from the raising of funds, to the planning process, until we reach the end product.
The program is so rewarding and provides you with skills that you can apply to everyday life.
As part of the program we took part in a 4 day team building exercise at Auchengillan Outdoor Centre. The aim of this was to help the team bond prepare the team for the challenges that lay ahead.
Before leaving we set ourselves a set of goals and targets to achieve whilst at the residential. We learned new things about ourselves and pushed ourselves mentally and physically through any hardships we came across. One of the guys Daniel Meechan said ‘The food amazing.' This was evident to the team as Daniel made himself sick by eating buckets of sweets from the Auchengillan Tuck Shop! But Daniel was right, no one could complain about the facilities at Auchengillan; the food was outstanding and we got generous portions!
One of our team Liam McArthur said how much he "enjoyed participating in all the activities; especially the view of the Scottish landscape during the activities." This was a view we all shared.
During the residential we were surrounded by stunning local landscape. However the reason we were at Auchengillan was not to stuff our faces and enjoy the view, but to build on our team's skills and highlight our own personal strengths and weaknesses. To help with this we took part in various outdoor activities, mountain biking, canoeing, abseiling and an array of climbing activities. One of our guys Stuart Wallace said ‘I was not too enthusiastic about the mountain biking challenge; it was really out of my comfort zone... but when it came down to the bare knuckle, I surprised myself. I made it through the mountain biking without any tantrums or complaining and found it really enjoyable.'
Another girl in our group Nicolle Forrest was adamant that she would not and could not do the canoeing! No matter how many times we tried to console her, but everything changed when she got into the canoe and into the water!
This is how loads of people felt about many of the tasks. People overcame their fears whilst others found a new lease of life encouraging others to their fullest.
The teams attitude towards the team building residential at Auchengillan was unbelievable, an unforgettable experience for us all. Although one member felt they couldn't stay for the whole four days, most of the team did and when we returned from the trip we felt stronger as a team, and more confident as individuals.
On our return we had the task to raise funds for our community project. Our main means of raising the required funds was a car wash in the college car park. The day we held the car wash unluckily it was cold, and rather damp! However we did not let this ‘dampen' our spirits, we worked our way through the build up of cars. We worked from 8 in the morning all the way to 2 in the afternoon!
Given the limited numbers and awful weather we made a good taking. Lee Wylie said ‘I thought the car wash went really well... apart from the fact Stephen (our Team Leader!) was complaining about his car not being washed properly.'
Our time so far with the Princes Trust has been enormously rewarding for all involved, and although sadly some members have dropped out from the course, the team as a whole is so strong.
In a final note of appeal to anyone that has an interest in helping the Princes Trust Program and in helping with our various projects: we appreciate all donations for our project fund. Any unwanted gifts you have received can be donated to the Princes Trust for our raffle; they all help towards raising more funds.
Thank you from myself and the entire team.
Stephen Morier
Princes Trust