An Exceptional Young Leader - News - Penwith School Sport Partnership

An Exceptional Young Leader

Youth Sports Games  -  Imogen Harry – Year 11

On Wednesday 2nd September I left Cornwall for a five day volunteering event at the UK School Games in Cardiff, Wales.  I travelled up with Mr Coleman and Nicola on the Wednesday and they were my chaperones for the first two days.  I met many amazing and friendly people on the first day, from both UK and international; this was to be my group for the next four days.  Over the four days we were lucky enough to be involved in a range of activities.  We visited the Welsh Government Assembly Building where we got tour of the amazing building and where we all got involved in group activities so that we could get to know each other a bit more and have a lot of fun.  We also went to both the opening and closing ceremony of the games, it was like a down-sized version of the Olympic Ceremonies.  It was incredible, the atmosphere was outstanding and as we had VIP passes, we got to sit close to the players and got a better experience of the whole event.  Of course, it wasn’t all for the free fun, we had to work for it, on the second day of the trip volunteering started and we were playing an important role in the organisation of the inter country competition.  Our main two fixtures where we were most of the days were the athletics and volleyball.  The volleyball arena was my favourite event as the atmosphere at the matches was phenomenal and there was a lot more of us to do there.  We all got given specific roles that we had to complete with a professional attitude.  At the volleyball I was lucky enough to be one of the volunteers to carry the country’s signs in and lead them onto court for their matches, that was my role for every match; the adrenaline I felt when walking out in front of a massive applauding crowd was unbelievable, it was the best feeling ever and being up close to the competitors was awesome and some of us made friends from the teams.

Olympic medallists attended the events, I was ecstatic to meet Denise Lewis, Chris Hoy and Darren Campbell, who were all lovely and friendly.

The days were very long but we were always kept busy doing something; interviews, volunteering, meeting new people and doing little jobs to help out the officials and sometimes the players.

I couldn’t describe how friendly everyone was and what a great time we all had together, it’s the best trip away I’ve had yet.  I would definitely go again!

 Saying goodbye to everyone on the last day was very upsetting as we all became so close, but we have all promised to keep in contact and numbers were exchanged.  Meeting the international volunteers was very inspiring and I learnt a lot about their cultures and way of living.

 Thank you Mounts Bay for giving me this great opportunity.

 Imogen Harry

Edit Article