Lifestyle Week @ European Rally

Devon Young Farmers European Rally Lifestyle Week

What a success! 45 members from the young farmers club and 4H (the European equivalent to YFC) came together from across Europe and met at Bicton College for the European Rally Lifestyle Week. The week ran from the 21st to the 29th of August, organised by Peter Reed, along with help by Julia Woollacott, Laura Hutchings, Robert Cann, Anne-Marie Harris and Jeremy Bell.

Team Building – members thread string through items of clothing and then have to pass a key through on the string

The week went smoothly with the group mixing and getting on really well. The programme for the week was action packed, which started off with a tour of Bicton Farm, the group were ferried around on the tractor and trailer to see the farm grounds. The afternoon was spent learning a dance from each of the countries, which was a right laugh seeing 45 people trying to learn it in 10 minutes!!

Tuesday started off with workshops, the group was split into three topics – Environment, Rural Youth and Culture. They looked at each topic and brainstormed to find out how each of the countries differs from one another. The Environment group looked at recycling, what the countries do and how they are encouraged to recycle. Rural Youth looked at what activities are available for the young people of the countryside. It was interesting to see how some had nothing for rural youth!! Marriage, socialising and education were the main discussions from the Culture group. It was good to see the group discussing the differences between each country. During the rest of the week, activities ranged from Raft Building on Bicton lake, visit to the Eden Project, Sculpture making from Willow , Farm Walk on Dartmoor and not to mention the socialising in the evenings!! Lets just say the Austrian Snaps were very strong!!

On the last day, each of the topic groups gave a presentation to rest of us, to describe what they have learnt about each country. The environment group done a TV advert to encourage people to recycle and also to share cars, with their motto being ‘We care, lets share’. The culture group put together a presentation on how the age groups differ for education within the countries, like Latvian’s start school at 6 years and remain in the same school until 16! Finally the rural youth group set up their own youth organisation, incorporating different activities from each country, their motto was ‘Come the way you are, develop your skills, there are no boundaries in Europe ’

The group really enjoyed the rally, with Ewa Makles (Polish Leader) saying ‘it was really good to meet people from my own age group with the same interests from across Europe , it really makes you feel we are a united Europe ’. Sara Olsson (Swedish Leader) saying ‘I really didn’t know what to expect when we arrived in Devon, one thing is for sure, Devon is a very beautiful place to live and an organisation like YFC is a great way to learn, make friends and have fun. Thank you to Devon YFC for organising this rally’.