Princess Anne honours Alberta’s future leaders
Young adults accept highest honour in Duke of Edinburgh’s leadership program
The numerous achievements of 25 young Albertans were celebrated with the royal treatment Wednesday morning, prompting Princess Anne to question how the young adults found the time to complete all their leadership initiatives.
A ceremony was held at Government House with the 25 young adults receiving gold-level recognition for their completion of the Duke of Edinburgh’s International Award, a leadership and self-development program for youth aged 14-24 established by Prince Philip in 1956.
“Speaking as somebody who managed to get the bronze award but failed dismally to succeed in the silver, it gives me some understanding of how difficult it is to achieve,” the Princess Royal said at the end of the ceremony.
“This is your award. Nobody makes you do this and you only succeed by your own efforts.”
Princess Anne said in her address that she is “hugely impressed” by the 500,000 young Canadians who have taken part in the program to date.
The highest gold honour requires a minimum of 52 weeks of service in the areas of physical recreation, community service, skills development, adventurous journey and culminating in a gold project.
It was a 10-year journey for Edmonton’s Regan Coyne who discovered her passion for leadership through her involvement with Girl Guides of Canada. Coyne said she now hopes to take the skills she’s developed through the program to mentor young girls.
“I believe that our young women are amazing leaders and if given the opportunity they will develop into the amazing leaders of tomorrow,” she said. “If you don’t put yourself out there and try something new, you’re never going to grow and this has given me so many opportunities to grow and to stretch.”
Princess Anne, on her first trip to Edmonton, greeted each recipient with a warm congratulations and lighthearted questions about their program experiences as they received their awards.
Born and raised Edmontonian Helen Cashman travelled to Peru for her gold project to help build a community centre, an experience she said motivated her to seek challenging adventures in community service.
Canadian Forces training officer Cirilo Bautista said the lengthy program was his motivation to join the Armed Forces and work toward his goal of becoming a flight service specialist.
“I accomplished goals I didn’t think I could,” said Bautista, who has lived in Edmonton since 2013.
The inspiring youth were also a little bit awestruck to have royalty present for the occasion.
“It’s super exciting to meet a princess,” Cashman said.
“It’s something that working through the award was a really cool thing, to have that recognition come through a member of the Royal Family.”