The International Day of Friendship was first declared in 2011 by the UN General Assembly with the belief that friendship whether this is between countries, cultures and individuals can inspire peace efforts and build bridges between communities.  

As part of this year’s International Friendship Day celebrations, we will be highlighting how the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award can help you to form lifelong friendships throughout your DofE journey. Whether you are attending your first Expedition planning meeting or you are eventually receiving your Gold Award at Holyrood Palace Gardens, you and your teammates are in for an exciting adventure which no other young person has experienced unless they have been Duke of Edinburgh’s Award alumni themselves.  

Kayleigh first joined our Open ASN group back in 2017, when she was still at school and didn’t really know what direction, her life was going in but she thought that she would grasp this fantastic opportunity and see where it would take her.  

The first team meeting that Kayleigh attended was where she got to meet her teammates Harry, Lewis, Archie and Callum for the first time and it soon became clear that the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award was certainly something that they wanted to commit to as a group and it quickly became a passion of theirs.  

After a lot of hard work and resilience, the Open ASN group completed their Silver Award back in March 2019, although they experienced challenges, they pulled together and helped each other to overcome these barriers. From then on always looked out for one another.  

After completing their Silver Award, they were even more determined to take on the exciting challenge of completing Gold. They completed it throughout the Coronavirus pandemic which gave the group something productive to focus on in lockdown.  

The group managed to finally complete their Gold Expedition section back in August 2021 once the pandemic restrictions had been lifted in their local area of Perthshire.  

The Open ASN group members managed to complete their residential section in 2022, based on activities that were of interest to them. 

In July 2023, our Open ASN group attended their Gold Award celebrations event within Holyrood Palace Gardens, this was an incredible day for them as a group alongside their families and realise what they have achieved in the past 6 years.  

#InternationalFriendshipDay2024 #DukeOfEdinburghShapesFriendships #ParticipantExperiences #DofE #PKDofE #StarfishWay