Local Face: Sarah Dennis

Sarah Dennis could be the only person from Wendover who spent New Year in Chile. Certainly, this was not the most obvious destination for a girl from England at this time but it was the culmination of a journey that started six or more years ago.

Back in the early nineties, Sarah’s older brother, Paul, was a Scout in the Wendover Mercury Troop. Their father Geoff was an occasional parent helper. One of the leaders left so Geoff trained to be Assistant Leader. This was the time when Sarah was coming up to leaving Brownies. She started to accompany her father to his scouting sessions and liked what she saw. Geoff campaigned for one of the Wendover Scout troops to become mixed and Sarah became one of the first girls in Wendover to become a Scout along with her friends Rebecca Barrett, Sophie Carlin and Moira Thompson. Since then, Geoff has become the Mercury troop leader with Beth (wife and mother of the family) his assistant.

As a Scout, Sarah loved the opportunity for outdoor activity. There were weekend camps in the Chilterns, often at Braids Wood, where they could follow nature trails; enjoy pioneering including making rope bridges; and practice “backwoods camping”, involving finding all the fire materials and cooking with no utensils except aluminium foil. The annual summer camp was usually for a week in another county and involved a lot of hiking and water sports. One special event is the annual 25km hike in the local hills, this year on Saturday 4th March. Sarah has always taken part, either as a walker or, more recently, on a check point.

Sarah started linking to the Hermes Venture Scout Unit at 15, joined at 15Y2 and is now Chair with Sophie Carlin, Secretary and Peter Brickell, Treasurer. They all put work towards Queen’s Scout Award on hold for GCSE but now they are in Year 12 (first year of A-levels) the planning proper has begun. This prestigious award includes an adventurous expedition (D of E Gold Level); learning a skill (to trainer qualification level) and community service (eg actively assisting leading a Cub Pack).

Meanwhile, Sarah has completed the adventure of a lifetime. She went to a selection process testing leadership and team building skills. She was then invited for a formal interview and finally offered a place at the forthcoming Scout Jamboree in Chile. So, 30 scouts, including 6 girls, met for the first time as the Bucks Unit in September, 1997. They then had another 9 group meetings and several sub-group meetings including team building and fund raising exercises. Sarah was very thankful that her local scout group could subsidise her so she only had to find £625.

In November, 1998, it. looked as though the whole trip would have to be cancelled when the Foreign Office banned all non-essential travel to Chile. It was not until December 17th that the final go-ahead was given. The UK Scout Charter plane left Gatwick on Boxing Day and arrived in Santiago to a very easy passage through passport control and customs 24 hours later. They were very tired but they had to pitch tents before they could sleep.

Jamboree is always a wonderful opportunity to meet Scouts from around the world – 35,000 people from over 100 nations speaking Spanish, English and French. Local service included painting a school, adventure included hiking in the Andes visits included a fruit farm, typical local industry. There is also the culture of “swaps”. Sarah swapped her special issue UK fleece for a beautiful Swiss Girl Scout special issue jumper and scarf. The original owner is coming to visit in the Spring.

The most unexpected highlight was celebrating New Year. At 9pm the British contingent celebrated with Auld Lange Syne then joined the Jamboree jollifications including a tribute band playing Latin, US and Britpop for all to join in. Just before midnight, they all sang “Hey Jude” in countless languages.

All too soon, they were back on the coaches again, headed for the airport and Curatiba in Brazil, the “Home Hospitality” leg of the tour. Sarah and another Bucks scout, Anna, stayed with 17 year old Danielle and her family. They visited the usual local tourist haunts – a stadium where Paul McCartney among others had performed and passed through natural forest on the way to the beach – 80 km away. Finally they all returned to Britain on Monday 11th January, 1999 and Sarah made it to school on Tuesday 12th but spent most of Wednesday 13th asleep!