PGL: Fifty Glorious Years
On 29th August 2007 PGL held a celebration on its home ground.
Bertie Everard reports....
Few organisations round the world can have done so much to introduce children and young people to the great outdoors as that remarkable brain-child of the late Peter Lawrence, PGL. I am privileged to have known him since the late 1950s when I went on several canoeing trips organised by what was then PGL Club of Letchworth – a small specialist canoeing holiday firm catering for young adults like me. Peter was trying out various rivers in those days, such as the Sava in Yugoslavia, the Adige in Italy and the Rhone in France. I remember an elderly vicar on the Sava trip, sharing a Tyne canoe with a young damsel, who sadly lost the bottom half of her bikini when they capsized in white water. His gallantry in lending her his own trunks when they landed on a shore downstream was exemplary! Other watersports were added, such as water-skiing at the end of the Rhone trip, and Peter began attracting a younger clientele. On my last PGL holiday I was accompanied mainly by schoolgirls! It was then that I decided to try other holidays.
What a change there has been over the years! Now the clients are almost all at school (or in youth clubs), and what used to be adult holidays purely for leisure have now become high-quality learning experiences, complementing formal education just as the Learning outside the Classroom Manifesto advocates.
On 29th August PGL held a celebration on its home ground. Roger Orgill, who gave Peter an early canoeing experience on a course at Plas y Brenin in the 1950s, stayed on dry land at Court Farm, while I paddled down the Wye in a huge flotilla of former guests and current staff to the Ross-on-Wye Rowing Club, where an excellent lunch was provided prior to the more formal celebrations in a marquee. Everything was organised impeccably – even the weather. It was great to be joined by PGL’s earliest clients – four indefatigable student nurses from the 1957 trip, now in their advancing years. Awards were presented to inspiring teachers who had brought successive school groups to PGL centres and others also were honoured for their contribution. Delightfully entertaining speeches were made.
The young staff employed by PGL over many years have been a strong feature of the operation; they have benefited immensely from what was often their first experience of work, and some have stayed to make their careers in the outdoor industry or excelled at competitive canoeing. Others have acted as ambassadors for PGL in other walks of life, such as teaching.
The Peter Lawrence Bursary was commemorated, its noble purpose being to enable youngsters to enjoy a PGL experience who would not otherwise be able to afford to come. It has already helped 80 young people and would be a fitting fund to make a donation. The final DVD, made by exuberant kids celebrating PGL’s 50th birthday, was particularly moving.
The commemorative booklet that we took away contains further tributes to this remarkable enterprise, which has recently been acquired by Holidaybreak plc to form its Education Division. The event was not only to celebrate the past but also to embrace the future and I am in no doubt that Peter’s 1950s enterprise, now grown from two to over 2300 staff, will go from strength to strength, helping to promote the values of the Institute as a major player in the outdoor learning world.