Spirit of Adventure Inspiration voyage.
Six students from Cambridge High School’s Te Haerenga homeroom tested their personal limits recently when they went on the Spirit of Adventure Inspiration voyage.
The six CHS participants – three boys and three girls – were accompanied by James Morris and Emily Wright, both teachers at the school’s Whare Tautoko department. The CHS crew joined a group that numbered 35 in all.
The annual five-day Spirit of Adventure Inspiration voyage provides an opportunity for young New Zealanders aged 16 to 30 who live with a disability to take part in the adventure of a lifetime. Participation is arranged by schools or organisations who support young people with disabilities.
Cambridge High’s Whare Tautoko is a learning support space aimed at supporting diversity and difference among young people. It was the Cambridge Lions Club that approached Morris to ask if the school wanted to send some of their Whare Tautoko students along this year.
Cambridge Lions first vice president Jackie Gunn said the Spirit of Adventure’s Inspiration voyage has been a New Zealand Lions project for a number of years, subsidising most of the costs involved.
“Our club picked up the remaining costs of the voyage,” she said. “We funded it through our Cambridge Lions Youth Project, which meant all the families were required to do was get the students to and from Auckland, where the voyage started and finished.”
The inspiration voyage is designed to focus on building confidence and life skills. Participants learn to communicate with new people, live with them in extremely close quarters, develop leadership skills, work in teams and learn to be resilient.
The voyage called on them to sail the ship (put up and pack down the sails), climb the mast, do on-board cleaning duties, do night watches, check the rigging and more, all working as part of a team. There was also time for plenty of enjoyment.
The CHS crew were said to have returned with a whole new skillset, great memories and newfound confidence in their own abilities.
Students from Cambridge High School’s Whare Tautoko supported learning space on their recent Spirit of Adventure Inspiration voyage.
