Yesterday evening, Lydia Vadgama of ReQuest Foundation told us about a planned voyage to the Arctic by a group of Kent Scouts.
Request Foundation is a legacy of ReQuest 2021 for which a group of 10 Scouts from Kent went to Antarctica to follow in the footsteps of Sir Ernest Shackleton’s Quest Expedition on the ship Endurance 100 years before in 1921. The purpose of the project was to relive the experience of Shackleton and his men and honour their journey, whilst al
so engaging in polar research, and driving interest and enthusiasm for polar exploration.
A member of the ReQuest 2021 Expedition, Lucy Morgan, was supported by a grant from the Mike Collingwood Memorial Fund 1.
Kent Scouts ArcticQuest2026 is an expedition to the Arctic Circle in 2026 being undertaken by a group of 20 Leaders, Network and Explore Scouts from across
Kent. The expedition will sail to Svalbard on the schooner, the Noorderlicht. The expedition will run a group project as well as individual projects.
The objectives of the voyage are:
- VOYAGE – An adventurous expedition ‘Under sail in the Frozen North’.
- PROJECTS – Undertake group & personal projects and present the results.
- WORSLEY – Celebrate the achievements of Frank Worsley 2.
- OUTREACH – Share the experience with thousands of young people.
- The Mike Collingwood Memorial Fund was created in memory of the first president of RC Weald of Kent and supports young people in their efforts to broaden their horizons and better themselves educationally and vocationally.
- Frank Worsley was a member of Shackleton’s Quest Expedition and was instrumental in the rescue of the members stranded on Elephant Island following the stranding of the Endurance in ice. Worsley undertook an expedition to Spitzbergen (Svalbard) which would have had to be aborted had it not been for Worsley’s seamanship.
