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May 2022 – Interview with João Ferreira who is cycling from John O’Groats to Lands End raising money for Topsham Adventure Centre.

At Topsham Adventure Centre, we are so excited about the JOGLE fundraising cycle ride that we wanted to hear more about João’s motivations and hopes for his ride.

Its a really wonderful thing that you are embarking on João , what is motivating you to do your JOGLE cycle?

“First of all I think it is about the challenge, it’s quite a long distance. It is not so much about the distance per day because I am used to riding those types of distances. Of course, you will do doing those sorts of distances every single day with a bit of extra weight. On the other hand, it will also be nice to have the opportunity to see other places, especially Scotland and the North of England, places I have never been before. Of course I will always be pedaling so i won’t have that much time to visit or stop that much. Hopefully, if I arrive early each day, I am thinking about 4 or 5pm I might have a couple of hours to have a look. It’s also about helping the Scouts, this was not the first objective because initially I just wanted to do this for me, something I would like to try, but of course I have the opportunity to join up those 2 pieces so for me the extra challenge was to try and raise some money for Topsham Adventure Centre”. 

What are you most and least excited about in relation to the JOGLE challenge?

“Okay, lets talk about the least exciting part, considering that I am now on my way to the airport, lets see if the bike will arrive on the flight to Inverness without any sort of damage or unpleasant surprise, I am still at that sort of stage where I am pretty sure I forgot something which is not the best feeling as everyone might imagine.”

“On the positive side it’s about starting this as soon as possible. I have been preparing this for a few months, I would say maybe since January, so yes I’m also curious to see how my body will react to so many days and hours on the saddle, consecutive days. And yes I want to see if I can do it, and I confess I already have in my mind a couple of excuses in case I won’t be able to do it, but hopefully I will not need to use it.”

What difference do you think the new building that you are fundraising will make to Topsham Sea Scouts?

“Well as everyone knows, a few years ago the building that the Scouts were using at the time was almost devastated by the storm and the floods that hit this part of the country. We never stopped running Scouts but of course the conditions we have at the moment are not the best. so We need to rely on spaces we can find and to be honest, especially this year I am with the Beavers Group, and Topsham Library is being really awesome with us, they have provided us the best space we could find in the library but it would be good if we could have our own home where we could meet with the Scouts every single week of the year when we don’t need to worry too much about the weather, if it’s raining or not. On top of that, because the building would not be used exclusively by Scouts, it will also be extremely important for the local community, especially for those that have special needs. From what I know of the new building there will be plenty of space for everyone to have the opportunity to enjoy, learn new skills and hopefully the community will be happy with that.”

As a Beavers section leader you will regularly see the difference Topsham Sea Scouts makes to its members. What might some of these might be?

“So,I think there are 2 ways to look at this. 1st one is the impact on the Scouts themselves, of course the young scouts, the beavers or cubs, as well as the leaders, even parents and carers. I think that all beavers really enjoy coming to the session, usually they always feel they will have some fun, they will learn something new. It’s also an opportunity to meet other Beavers that they might not know, simply because they go to different schools. The feedback that I get, not just from the beavers but also from parents is good so they always enjoy beavers. When they start they are really shy, they don’t talk too much, sometimes they struggle and be afraid of participating in some activities and it is nice to see that they really progress fast and that they can actually enjoy and have fun. On the other side, the community side, of course it’s nice to see, especially when we do some sort of fundraising event or participate in things like the annual parade, that people really support Scouts. It is always nice when adults come to us and say, ‘by the way I used to be a Scout a few decades ago . I am really happy that you keep doing this for the young Scouts as well as the local community.’ It is nice to see that everytime we do something for the community we always get great feedback and people are extremely happy to support us.