On Saturday 24th March I held a boat race to help
raise funds for our trip to Guyana.
My assistant leader Susanne was the one to suggest it as she
had seen and idea in a resource about making paper boats and sailing them as
part of the Diamond Jubilee celebrations as the Queen is having a flotilla of
1000 boats on the Thames. Making and selling 1000 paper boats was a bit
ambitious, but I started folding! I found a good instruction video on Youtube
and bought some bright paper. I then printed numbers on the sails that would
make the winner easy to identify and had a corresponding spread sheet where
people could sign up and buy a boat for £1.00. The owner of the first boat over
the finishing line would win £100.00.
In the end I sold just over 420 boats. The race took place
at Netherurd House, the Scottish training and activity centre in Peebles-shire.
I chose a day when people from my county would be attending a training weekend
so that I would have their support.
I couldn’t have picked a better day to do it as the sun was
shining! Just as well, as the water was still freeing. Some parts of the stream
were too deep for wellies, so I had to wear crocs and bear the cold!
With he help of a net (constructed by my brother Graham),
two willing guides and a big stick, the boats were launched. Unfortunately the water was very low because of the
good weather and lack of snow over the winter some boats either got stuck on
rocks or disintegrated completely. There were still some determined wee boats
and in less than 10 minutes we had our winner, a yellow boat owned by Susanne’s
friend Clair. She had the last 20 boats on the list and was glad of her last
minute purchase!
Thanks to everyone who bought boats or helped on the day
including the staff at Netherurd, My parents, Graham, Susanne, Chantelle,
Megan, Division Commissioner Anne, Karen, Margaret Anne and my
County Commissioner Margaret.
Laura x
