This year, the 50th anniversary of The Duke of Edinburgh's International Award Gibraltar, 120 young people who have participated in the Award are eligible to be presented with their Awards at a ceremony, at Grand Battery House, on Tuesday 19th October. 

A statement from the Duke of Edinburgh's International Award Gibraltar follows below:

His Excellency The Governor, Vice Admiral Sir David Steel KBE DL, as Patron of the Award in Gibraltar, and John May OBE DL, Secretary General of the International Award Foundation, will present Bronze, Silver and Gold Awards at a ceremony which will be attended by families, Award leaders, activity coaches, assessors, sponsors, and many others.

The young people receiving their Awards have been involved in a wide variety of activities geared towards completing the requirements of the Award.  Some will have been involved for about a year whereas others will have been involved for a couple of years; the latter to achieve the Gold Award.

For over sixty years, millions of young people have participated and received Awards, with millions more benefiting from its impact on communities around the world.  Through non-formal education, the Award can play a critical role in a young person’s personal development and is achievable by any young person who wants to take up the challenge.

The Award gives young people, aged 14 to 24, the opportunity to experience challenges and adventures, acquire new skills and make new friends.  Young people who do the Award become more confident and resilient, and develop skills in areas such as communication, problem solving and leadership.  This in turn impacts on their communities, who see improvements in areas including employability, health and well-being, and educational attainment.  The Award aims to help young people become #WorldReady via non-formal education.

The Award comprises four sections.  The Voluntary Service section intended to develop a sense of community and social responsibility.  The Adventurous Journey aims to cultivate a spirit of adventure and discovery and an understanding of the environment.  The Skills section develops cultural, vocational, and practical skills and the Physical Recreation section encourages improved performance and fitness.  The Gold Award has an additional section, the Gold Residential Project, which sees participants undertake some form of purposeful enterprise whilst living away from home for a week.

To complete the Voluntary Service requirements the young people have, amongst other things, been assisting with animal welfare, helping at various charities, dog walking, sports coaching, and officiating, conservation and environmental work and, assisting at the Cancer Relief Centre, church upkeep, as well as other activities.

For their Skills they have learnt about acting, art, chess, cookery, debating, drama, first aid, gardening, online gaming, and cybersecurity, knitting, learning other languages, playing musical instruments, photography, reading, sewing, singing and other pastimes.

All have completed a physically challenging expedition as part of the Adventurous Journey requirements and this has seen them hike a minimum of either, 24 km (Jimena de la Frontera/Sierra de Grazalema), 48 km (Sierra de Gredos) or, 80 km (Cevennes) depending on which Award they are receiving.

The recipients have also been heavily involved in sports.  For Physical Recreation there has been involvement in athletics, badminton, basketball, dance, fitness training, football, gymnastics, hockey, horse riding, ice skating, kayaking, lawn tennis, martial arts, netball, rowing, rugby, sailing, squash, swimming, table tennis, and volleyball, to name but a few.

All these varied activities require the support of a small team of dedicated, volunteer, Award leaders who make all the arrangements and take the participants on their adventurous journeys.  In addition, there are countless volunteers who give their time to teach, supervise and assess the young people in their chosen activities.  To all of them the Award's Board of Trustees owes a debt of gratitude and thanks them for their untiring efforts and support.

Naturally, without the participation of the young people there would be no Award Ceremony and therefore the Board, leaders, supporters, and families wish to congratulate the following on their achievements;

BRONZE AWARD

Jasmine Bateman

Abigael Bellingan

Olivia Bellingan

Maya Breeze

Cameron Byrne

Erin Byrne

Shenai Caballero-Laoudy

Lucia Cardenas

Matvey Celecia

Jayron Cerisola

Niamh Colton 

Ella Cruz

Leon Cruz

Max Cruz

Daniel Culligan-Huggins

Karenza Daswani

Karizma Daswani

Sebastian Diaz Mateos

Preston Feeke

Nicholas Grech

Diego Guzman

Emily Hermida

Louise Hyde

Nayan Jeffries

Pablo Kussner

Carlos Kussner-Nuñez

Marta Sofia Leiria

Harvey Leroy

Chloe McCarthy

Lee Mifsud

Matthew Mills

Ana Montero

Cristina Muñoz

Ewan Navarro

Lucia O'Connor 

Jesse Olivero

Nathan Parody

Cadie Pedder

Evan Penfold

Cecilia Pilcher

Haylee Pincho

Katie Pitaluga

Giuseppa Plantone

Michael Porter

Thomas Posso

Natalia Reyes

Marta Rodriguez 

Ethan Roworth Mancera

Iona Sacarello 

Alexander Sanchez-Soiza

Jesse Segui

Ana Serra

Div Shanani

Ohad Shay

Shanaya Sheriff 

Aman Shivdasani

Jules Stych

Alexa Tilbury-Chang

Ryan Victor

Erin Villa Quick

Mae Wilkie

Alex Woods 

Julia Zelazo

SILVER AWARD

Nayan Adamberry

Erin Appleton

Teagan Barrett

Daniel Brink

Aidan Brion

Pedro Caballero

Nathan Caines

Sebastian Cassaglia

Hannah Cavilla

Guy Coope-Vickers

Lili-Mae Cruz

Mariah Davis

Aryan Dhanwani

Cristina Diaz Mateos

William Duthie

Evan Dyer 

Emily-June Feeke

Alicia Fernandes

Mariana Fernandes Chambel

Callum Ferrary

Emma Fitzpatrick

Nikolaj Forrester

Inez Fraga Smith

Gianni Gonzalez

Sian Gonzalez

Joseph Greco

Evan Hamilton 

Callum Hellier

Michael Jarman

Pierre Leroy

David Lester

Javier Lopez Montero

Emma Maclaren

Deeta Mahbubani

Johan Mahtani

Rebecca McHard 

Celine Monteverde

Katie Muscat-Byrne

Ishika Nagrani

Reena Nagrani

Eleanor Navarro

Jessica Nuttall

Emma Olivero 

Gianni Revagliatte

James Rosado

Joey Sacarello

Rosie Tunbridge 

Aerin Victory

Lewis Victor 

Mia Wallace

Salvador Ziblim

GOLD AWARD

Tara Bossano Anes

Timothy Canessa

Christopher Cardona

Lillianne Hawkins

Stella Panayotti

Daniel Prince

Many of the recipients have already commenced their activities towards their Silver and Gold Awards and we wish them every success for the future.  Some have themselves also volunteered to become Award leaders either, before heading off to further their studies at university or, having returned from completing them.

The Chairman and Members of the Board would also like to express their thanks to the Trustees and Staff of Grand Battery House, Hour Events, Easiprint Limited, Gibraltar Chronicle Printing Works, and Cadets from No. 2 Overseas (Gibraltar) Squadron Air Training Corps, for their support in ensuring the success of the event.

If you are interested in becoming involved be it as a participant, leader, supervisor or wish to contribute financially or otherwise please contact the National Director, Michael Pizzarello, on 20051971 or, email [email protected], or visit our website www.thedukes.gi