Clubmark Presentation

On Saturday evening there was an impressive sight on the water outside the 22nd Sea Scouts, paddlers in open canoes and a variety of kayaks all met up for one special reason - to celebrate our three local clubs (The Riverside Clubs, Falcon and Isis CC) being awarded the prestigious Clubmark.

After getting all the boats on the water Penny joined us with our local councillor after a small paddle up the Thames. Our first activity was a photo call for the Oxford Mail which saw a myriad of paddlers smiling and cheering for the camera.

Once the camera had finished snapping we all popped the boats away and moved over to The Riverside Centre for a lovely buffet arranged by Penny. After filling ourselves we moved on to a short speech from Chris Edge, the Paddlesport Development Officer (PDO) for the South East. After explaining what Clubmark means and how much hard work goes in to achieving it Chris handed over to our Councillor who highlighted how amazing it was to have three clubs in such close proximity who were all of such a good standard. He also highlighted how important it was for the council to support our clubs, especially since they were run by volunteers, something which Chris Edge agreed with and highlighted the forthcoming Volunteer Awards. With speeches over we had the certificate presentations and a short round of speeches and photos from the Chairs of all the award winning clubs.

Isis CC has gone from strength to strength over the last ten years and being awarded Clubmark status is the culmination of lots of hard work by our committee and, of course, Penny who has done most of the paperwork. It's a great reason to celebrate...perhaps we should go for a paddle?

- Jen

Photos by Jen.