Our man in Mayo

John was 16 and in the middle of cramming hard for his Leaving Cert when he became involved
with the venturers. He was not a scout but was looking to do an expedition for Gaise - The President's Award, when he got a call out of the blue .............. like many of us, and was asked would he like
to trek 200km across England with someone he had never met before.Naturally he decided to do it thinking that it would only be two weeks of his life. But as he soon discoved once you take on the the challenge of the belt, or get involved in scouting at any level , things are never quite the same
afterwards. John met his partner, Eoin Byrne from Templeogue in Dublin, for the first time the night
before the belt and while the two had no fights along the way, it wasn't all easy.      " We got on pretty well but it was hard for him as he had been training for it all year and
I had just come into it. The problem was that I had no experience in scouting and did not know
what to expect," says John. Before the Belt, he hadn't been involved in scouting apart from a few weeks at cubs before
the unit in Crosmolina closed down. Nothing to do with John signing up, he claims. Even after the Belt, he drifted away from it until he was thrown back into it by pure
accident when he was in college in Cathal Brugha Street.      " I accidently bumped into a girl who was on the Belt with me in England in '92 and she was
going to a meeting. I had nothing else to do and didn't know that manypeople at the time so I
went along and am still there. "       Still there, he is, and hoping to build venturing in the western field into a force to be
reckoned with. There are around 100 venturers in his area which takes in takes in Sligo, Mayo,
Galway, Clare and Limerick but he is hoping to expand this further and create contacts in each
area.      "We are trying to create a provential venturer team. In getting the focus away from Dublin,
people will feel more inclined to get involved. They are more likely to travel to Galway or
other towns nearer their home for activities so that is what we are hoping to build up during
the year." 

If you wish to mail John please use this address johnmayo74@hotmail.com