Gavin, along with some of his family and friends, organised a climb of Ben Nevis in aid of the charity ‘SANDs’ in early August and raised over £250. Gavin and his family wanted to raise the money for the charity as it is quite close to their hearts, one of his family members became very ill after having a baby and they wanted to repay the valuable help and support they received. 

Gavin anticipated the climb to be quite easy despite never having climbed Ben Nevis before, however, he was surprised when “the first bit was quite hard, the middle bit was easier as it seemed quite flat but then the last bit was quite difficult too”. Gavin beamed that “It felt quite good to get to the top, but it was absolutely freezing up there”. Unfortunately they were not met with an amazing view for their efforts, when they reached the top, Gavin explained it is quite rare to get a clear view and “it was really foggy when we got to the top”. 

If you are interested in finding out about the charity ‘SANDs’ or fancy raising some money for their amazing cause, please visit their website at https://www.sands.org.uk/ 

Jamie has been involved in volunteer activities with the charity Seawilding. Seawilding is a National Lottery funded Scottish charity who work to restore marine habitats that have been affected or destroyed by commercial fishing, the use of anchors and fish farming. Currently, they are working to restore the oyster beds of some parts of Loch Craignish which have decreased dramatically over the past few years. 

Jamie has been working with Seawilding as a volunteer by helping them release oysters, harvest seagrass and on the weekend of the 11th of September, Jamie was a youth leader on the first marine themed youth group session for primary pupils. 

The Seawilding charity are making a short film that will be shown at the COP26 UN Climate Change conference that will take place in Glasgow next month. It was requested that Jamie take part in the filming schedule. This was a really exciting and well deserved opportunity for Jamie who has himself carried out the work to “restore the oyster beds, improve water quality and enhance biodiversity in Loch Craignish”, and as imagined, he jumped at the opportunity! Jamie said that he “is really excited, a little bit nervous but excited to see the finished product”.

We spoke to Jamie and he said that he “likes to help out with them” and he thinks “ it's cool that he can improve the wellbeing of my local loch, and that I can have a nice place to live with lots of animals and sea-life”. When talking about helping the charity, Jamie says that he “enjoys doing it and loves to be out on the water and out snorkelling, it's really fun seeing all the seagrass and wildlife”. 

If you would like to find out any more about the charity ‘Seawilding’, the link to their website is as follows: https://www.seawilding.org/ 

A huge well done to both boys!!