Venture Scotland are delighted to introduce one of our committed fundraisers, Henrietta! Henrietta is taking on some epic challenges in 2024 to fundraise and support Venture Scotland and our young people. We are always incredibly excited, and grateful, whenever our amazing supporters choose to fundraise Venture Scotland! We asked Henrietta to tell us a bit more about what she’s doing in 2024…
Hi everyone! My name’s Henrietta and I am fundraising for Venture Scotland this year because I absolutely love the work that this charity does! Being just a little older than Venture Scotland’s participants myself, I know how much getting outdoors and into nature has helped me to feel better in myself, and my own mental health,. So when I started to get involved in fundraising, I looked for an organisation that fit with my experience. Venture Scotland is so unique with it’s long-term programme focus on the outdoors and making amazing activities accessible to young people. I feel passionate about this work that sets young people up for life – and for success!
Raising funds to support young people to feel a bit better makes me feel incredibly proud. Venture Scotland is an organisation that is very close to my heart and I’m excited to be involved! Over the next couple of months I will be taking on a 20 mile run in one day in March (20 Along the Forth 2024 – Running in Edinburgh (letsdothis.com)), the Glasgow Kiltwalk in April (The Kiltwalk | The Glasgow Kiltwalk ), before finishing my year of fundraising by taking on Everest Base Camp!
I’ve always enjoyed walking. I don’t drive so I was used to walking a lot, but it also limits my options a bit as all my hikes are limited to public transport. When I wasn’t able to travel from Glasgow during the pandemic, I explored local parks and, even after life returned to normal-ish, I kept walking. I have taken on challenges like climbing Ben Lomond and walking the West Highland Way in the past – I love the peace and time to yourself that hiking gives you. The fact that the only thing you have to do that day is put one foot in front of the other, I find that everything else falls away and it is good for my brain. I often do walks and hikes with my Mum, Katalin. It has been brilliant to have that special quality time with her, so after the West Highland Way, I was thinking about other adventures that we could do. Then I heard this podcast with Abbie Barnes who talks a lot about mental health and the outdoors, she had completed her Kilimanjaro Trek at 16 – I didn’t even realise that it would be possible for me to do things like that – and then when I looked into it, I saw that I could try for Everest Base Camp. I thought, that sounds like my kind of adventure, and now me and my Mum – are heading off to Nepal in October!
I know that Base Camp will be a huge challenge for me and my Mum, but walking and hiking consistently reminds me how resilient I am, and getting to see that grow over time, too. I also love the constant learning that I do whilst hiking – recently we tried to go up the Cobbler again – a route about an hour out of Glasgow (The Cobbler, Arrochar (Walkhighlands)), and one that we’ve done a few times before, alongside the higher peaks surrounding it. At the beginning it was a bit icy, but we hiked carefully, finding it challenging but fun. Being in the outdoors with others means working with them and adjusting plans as we go along to ensure that they suit everyone in the group. So, despite knowing the Arrochar area relatively well, knowing the terrain, we got quite close to the top before turning back because it got too icy for the gear that we had brought with us and, although we really wanted to make it to the top, we knew that being safe was the most important thing. So we made the decision to turn back knowing that there will be other opportunities to summit the Cobbler, and we are looking forward to getting back out into the Arrochar Alps again, soon!
Henrietta and Katalin are taking on an epic challenge to support Venture Scotland and the young people that we work with – if you would like to support their efforts you can make a donation here: Henrietta Kurusa is fundraising for Venture Scotland (justgiving.com)
If you’d like to join them on any of their fundraising adventures, check out the events pages for each challenge – or, if you’d like to support Venture Scotland through a different activity, get in touch on fundraising@venturescotland.org.uk and Tricia, Sophie and Katie would be delighted to hear from you!