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Richard hikes up a cash award
Wednesday June 18th 2008. Posted: 09:30
When Richard Bush invites scouts and guides to take a hike, he means it in the best possible way. Because Richard, a BT finance manager, helps to organise 50 mile, 50 kilometre and 30 kilometre hikes for members of the scout and guide associations in Waltham Cross, Hertfordshire.
The walks, for the Southern 50 Challenge Hike organisation, are organised for youngsters over the age of 14 and designed to be completed within 24 hours. Richard is also involved with the Chiltern 20 - a 20 kilometre walk for participants between the ages of ten and 14. “My duties, as a member of the organising committee, means being walk route controller on the day of the event, looking for lost teams and ensuring the smooth running of checkpoints,” said Richard, who has been involved with the group for 29 years and who also acts as treasurer and website administrator for both the Southern 50 and Chiltern 20 events. “I get great satisfaction from running a really successful event that gives a lot of people a challenge that they enjoy - even the ones who wind up with sore feet. “Organisational skills, finance and project management, health and safety, as well as risk management, all learnt at BT, have helped with my work for the groups, not to mention persuasion and people skills - very necessary at two o’clock in the morning when you are convincing someone that they should stop walking because they are exhausted and are not letting their team down by doing so.” Now Richard has recieved £260 for the Southern 50 Challenge Hike group, thanks to an application he put in to the BT Community Champions scheme. The cash will be used to buy safety equipment, such as high-visibility armbands for walkers and high-visibility vests for the organisers, to maximise their visibility to drivers when they are walking on roads during the hours of darkness. “It’s necessary to replenish stocks of these frequently as they get lost, worn out or damaged,” said Richard. For more information about the hikes, go online. This story could win you a prize in our new competition - see BT Today East on Thursday 26 June.
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Last updated:
09:55
