Some of the country’s brightest young people visited Glasgow City Chambers to receive medals for their work on the Inspire-Aspire programme from Olympic Gold Medallist rower, Katherine Grainger CBE, IOC member Sir Craig Reedie CBE and the Lord Provost of Glasgow Cllr Sadie Docherty.
The Inspire-Aspire Awards programme reached 25,000 young people this year by using the Olympic and Paralympic Games and the character qualities of Oly
mpians to inspire young people to set personal goals and to develop future aspirations.
Winning a joint- Gold, 1st Level award at the event were Iona Robertson, Banff Academy and Dornie Burnett from Inverurie Academy.
Dornie chose Nadia Elena Comăneci as her inspirational figure as part of her work on the programme. Expressing her reasons for her chosen inspirational figure, Dornie said:
“How many future gymnasts did Nadia inspire? I don’t know the exact number, but it is at least one, because she inspired me”.
Before presenting the awards, Olympian Grainger told an enthralled audience that it takes commitment and courage to reach the top. She spoke about how it was sheer determination that had helped her finish the race at the London Olympics in 2012. Grainger expressed how important using the Olympic and Paralympic values in everyday life can be, not just in sport.
Inspire-Aspire aims to help young people gain a better understanding of their own character qualities and values and inspire them to create a personal development plan.
Iona explained how much of an impact participating in Inspire-Aspire has had on her: “The questions it asked me made me put my goals and targets into perspective.”
Fantastic! Well done to all the pupils and teachers involved. You have proven that we can all learn from the character qualities of Olympians to set our own goals whatever they may be and work at it to achieve them. Make sure you take part again next years’ awards see http://www.inspire-aspire.org.uk.