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Two brothers from Fort St. James working towards Duke of Edinburgh’s International Award

For Morgon and William Bennison, it’s all about gaining experience, knowledge and all in all, more opportunities.
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Morgon and William Bennison.

Barbara Latkowski

Caledonia Courier

For Morgon and William Bennison, it’s all about gaining experience, knowledge and all in all, more opportunities.

The two brothers from Fort St. James are both on the road to achieving the Duke of Edinburgh’s International Award.

“Our sister did it,” Morgon said. “She was a girl guide and my brother and I saw how it impacted her future studies, so we decided that we were going to try it too.”

The Duke of Edinburgh’s International Award is a self-development program for young people between the ages of 14 – 24.

To date, over 500,000 young people from Canada and over 8 million youth in 143 counties have taken part in achieving a variety of challenging and voluntary activities.

The purpose of the award is to encourage young people to set their own goals and challenges, work towards achieving them and then be recognised at the end for having completed them.

It is a journey of self-development, training and personal achievement.

To receive an award, participants must set goals in four program areas: service, adventurous journey, skills, physical recreation and a residential project.

“It really helped our sister lay out a good transition from high school moving forward,” Morgon said

Morgon is 17-years-old and attends Fort St. James Secondary School. William, 14, also attends the high school.

The pair just started the program five weeks ago but already, they are seeing the opportunities and benefits that lie ahead.

“It should be a lot of fun,” Morgon said. “Part of it is a trip at the end.”

“This year we are already planning to hike up Mount Robson with our mom.”

Mount Robson is the most prominent mountain in North America’s Rocky Mountain range. It is the highest point in the Canadian Rockies at 12,972 ft.

“I’m glad we signed up. It’s a cool opportunity to go out and do something different,” Morgon said.