Lord Lieutenant's Garden Party

On the 21st of June 2009 I was invited to attend the Lord Lieutenant Dr. Ingrid Roscoe’s garden party for young achievers. I was invited as a result of some of the work I did whilst completing my Queen’s Badge award with the 12th Leeds Boys Brigade. As part of the Queens Badge award I helped to run a Boys Brigade restaurant. Officers and some of the young people of our Battalion participated in this, and each had different roles and responsibilities. We advertised and sold tickets to people who lived in the local area; the restaurant was a great success and the money we raised from it was used to help towards the funding of sending a cow to a village in Africa. The following year we did another restaurant with the aim of raising money to help send a whole farm to a village in Africa.

The garden party was at Bowcliffe Hall in Wetherby. At this event there were other young achievers who represented different uniformed organisations from West Yorkshire; The Cadets, St Johns Ambulance and the Naval Cadets were just a few of the organisations represented. Other young people who had achieved individual awards were also present on the day. The proceedings with speeches made by Dr. Roscoe herself and special guest, BBC Look North Presenter Christa Akroyd, who spoke about her career in journalism. I was very fortunate to be specially selected along with some other young achievers from the Wakefield area to be presented to Dr. Roscoe and Mrs. Akroyd. When presented to them they asked me about the Boys Brigade restaurant and how I important I thought it was to the boys of the 12th Leeds and Leeds Battalion.

The rest of the day gave me the opportunity to socialise and talk with other young achievers, who all had achieved such great things. I was honoured and privileged to be invited to this event, and it has inspired me to try and achieve more in my life.

Jack Towler
12th Leeds