Voluntary Services Award (VSA) - Year Two!

Difficult choices, I am not a big fan of difficult choices, but it in this case of the Voluntary Service Award it has been very encouraging to have been put in the position of making a very difficult choice.

Andrew Boys with WOBS Voluntary Service Award 2002 winners James Powys-Lybbe and Alex Tyrwhitt

The award is now in its second year and I have been extremely impressed by the quality of the applicants. It has been very hard to make the award, and while it is often said in these cases it is nevertheless very true, that all of us on the committee would have wished to have made the award to every applicant had funds permitted. (This is, perhaps, the cue for any rich old boys wishing to make a donation for the VSA to step forward…)

Andrew Boys congratulates James Powys-Lybbe on his WOBS Voluntary Service Award

While international travel and “gap year” activities have become commonplace it is one thing to go travelling for one’s own pleasure, it is quite another to go to some of the poorest parts of the planet and try and help. I have been impressed by the courage, determination, and generosity of the recipients of the award. I also think it says a great deal for Worth and its education system that it can produce (though I suspect Fr Christopher would say merely develop) people who have the guts to go out into some of the most trying parts of the world and when they get there make a positive contribution. I hope after reading what follows you will agree.

Andrew Boys congratulates Alex Tyrwhitt on his WOBS Voluntary Service Award

I am pleased to announce that this year £500 was awarded to James Powys-Lybbe, who is going to work in an orphanage in Romania and £250 to Alex Tyrwhitt, who is going to teach English in China. They will report back next year, but here Nick Smith and Ed Bonn, recipients of the 2001 VSAs report on their time in voluntary service.