On the 11^th of June this year, as the winners of the YPI (Youth Philanthropy Initiative) from our school, we attended the annual YPI event in Perth.  When we arrived we were given the £3000 cheque with our charity’s name on it. After registration we waited in line with the other YPI winners to get our photo taken.  We then met with the representatives from our chosen charity and then were asked into the hall for the main event. After a video call from the founder of YPI, Julie Toskan-Casale (all the way from Canada) and another from Olympic gold medallist Katherine Granger, we were constantly asked “this is my philanthropy, what is yours?”  Then we were shown other winners creative presentations and learnt about their charities. After seeing these presentations we were given an inspirational speech by the professional adventurer Sean Conway who swam from Lands’ End to John O’Groats. We had lunch and met other inspiring YPI winners, and then we were shown more presentations and heard the stories of others. There was music, dance and a few tears in the crowd but the day was truly inspirational and we enjoyed our time in the YPI project and hope to continue contact with our charity.

Written by Stuart Smith and Izzy Milford (part of the winning YPI team 2013/14.  Other team members – Kay Henderson, Fern Smith and Alexander Whyttock)