The joy was great when KFUM Scouts, Aabybro recently received the news that they had received support from “Fonden Sol og Strand by Margit og Kjeld”.

The foundation aims to support charitable purposes, and the board has decided to support the scouts with 7,500 kroner for “Project Life on the River”.

– The children and young people have long requested more activities, and our wish is to take advantage of our location close to Ryå and Limfjorden, says Peter Heidemann Gregersen, who is the group leader at KFUM Scouts, Aabybro.

Therefore, the plan is to buy 16 sea kayaks and a trailer for transporting the kayaks.

– Nature is a big attraction, and there are good opportunities to both gain knowledge and cultivate community. Therefore, we want to create activities in the water where we can observe animals and plants and follow their development. Furthermore, the plan is to create new challenging activities where we can push some of the scouts' boundaries, says Peter Heidemann Gregersen.

He has been a scout himself since he was five years old – in a few months, he will turn 30. Even though he now has a full-time job, he still enjoys spending his free time on the association, which has 130 members aged 3-17 years.

He hopes that the new activities can help retain the oldest scouts and thus maintain the friendships that inevitably come with it. And not least ensure that new volunteers join the association and retain the good volunteer leaders who are already in the association.

– My expectation is that this new initiative will make it more attractive for the oldest scouts, and that they – in the long run – will want to become leaders, says Peter Heidemann Gregersen, who adds that the plan is for other local scout groups to be able to borrow the kayaks as well.

The project has also received support from, among others, the Outdoor Council and the Gudrun & Palle Mørch Memorial Fund, and Peter Heidemann Gregersen hopes that it will be possible to order the first canoes in November and launch them in the spring of 2024.