These are some of the activities we have participated in as part of our John Muir Award this year. Our sessions have had a profound impact on the woodland, encouraging wildlife and allowing more young people to safely access the wood.
We’ve got a new toilet at Treacle Valley, some photos of the build process are here and you can also find out how our ‘loo with a view’ is helping families in Nepal.
We take our obligations as a not-for-profit Community Interest Company very seriously. Being a CIC means the directors of the company do not benefit personally from the success of the business; any profits that the company ultimately makes will benefit the wider community and, more specifically, the organisation named in our ‘asset lock’. In our case, this means that any profits Taleblazers ultimately makes will be donated to the Dartmoor Search and Rescue Team based in Ashburton.
However, we intend to be running Taleblazers for a very long time! This means that DSRT could be waiting a long time before sharing any financial success. We have therefore decided to make a donation of £250 as a New Year’s gift to DSRT, as a kind of interim statement of our ongoing investment in the community and our desire for other organisations we love to benefit from our success.
Dartmoor Search and Rescue Team are a voluntary charity who help the emergency services to search for and rescue lost, missing, injured and vulnerable people. We most frequently associate them with finding lost walkers on the moors but they are also active in helping to find vulnerable people such as people with dementia, children and people experiencing mental health crises. Over 90% of their income is from donations and we are delighted to be in a position to support them.
At the same time, we have also decided to donate £100 to one of our favourite charities, the John Muir Trust, who conserve, protect and restore wild places across the UK. We share their passion for wild places and their John Muir Award programmes are central to our education work.
Crafting is something we do lots of at Taleblazers. It is a form of self-expression that allows people to create beautiful and useful objects and is more than just a fun hobby. It has also been shown to have a number of benefits for mental and physical health.
Exploring coastal erosion on a beautiful autumn day at the Ness
We explore how child-led exploration and questioning can lead to meaningful learning experiences in nature.
After gaining insights into the objectives of The Seal Project, two John Muir Award students developed posters to raise awareness about appropriate actions when encountering seals, highlighting what to do — and behaviours to avoid
Today, we embarked on a new challenge, joining the #BigSeaweedSearch at Broadsands and Elberry Cove.
Our dedicated John Muir Award student became a vital part of the team, collecting data and making a valuable contribution to seaweed and climate change research.
For the ‘Conserve’ element of the John Muir Award, young people are encouraged and challenged to take part in tasks that help to protect or conserve their chosen place. We explore the benefits of the activity for our young people and the positive educational impact that it can offer.
We delve into the therapeutic activity of hunting for sea glass along the shorelines of Torbay’s beaches. We discover how the journey of sea glass mirrors the challenges and growth in our own lives.