Hard work by a Ponoka youth has earned him the coveted Duke of Edinburgh's Award, by achieving specific personal milestones.
Zac Littlewood was inspired to take part in the challenge because of his work with the Ponoka Air Cadets. Youths partaking in the Duke of Edinburgh's Award program must complete a set of activities for a certain period of time, including:
• Service to the community
• Skills in a field
• Physical recreation
• Take an adventurous journey
Littlewood earned the bronze medal and he is working on achieving his silver medal. He says he had to show that he worked on each activity for three months and at least one hour a week. Much of his work with the Air Cadets involved service to the community.
For the skill challenge Littlewood decided to create and edit a set of videos, each with a different genre and theme. "I worked on different ways of changing my videos so they would look better."
He credits help from teachers at St. Augustine Catholic School for providing equipment or tools needed to complete each task. His biggest challenge was finding the time to create the videos. Littlewood used GoPro cameras and digital video cameras to complete the skill task.
He is excited to have earned the bronze medal, as it is positive mark on his school resume. His hope is to work in media studies at the university level and taking this challenge gave him valuable experience.
"It's one of the best awards you can have because it's from the royal family," said Littlewood.
The bronze award was presented by cadets' commanding officer Cpt. Tracy Fiedler. The silver is presented by the Lieutenant Governor of Alberta and the gold is awarded by a member of the royal family. Littechild said he looks forward to upcoming challenges.
"I want to get the gold, it's one of my goals," he concluded.