Instructor Cheryl Taylor receives RYA Scotland Impact Award
by RYA Scotland 2 Jun 2023 21:38 NZST
Instructor Cheryl Taylor receives RYA Scotland Impact Award © RYA Scotland
Cheryl is an RYA Senior Instructor who volunteers her own time to teach and introduce sailing to young kids at Dalgety Bay Sailing Club, and has been nominated for a RYA Scotland Impact Award.
The RYA Scotland Impact Awards aim to recognise that value of those people and share the stories over a series of short films during Volunteer Week 1-7th June, and beyond.
Cheryl shows patience and is extremely knowledgeable of the sport, meaning she puts the kids at ease and gains their trust easily. Giving up her own time when she has a busy family life deserves recognition as many are grateful for the generations she has enabled to get afloat over her time at the club through Cheryl's constant encouragement.
As one of the RYA Senior Instructors of the club Cheryl is dedicated to grassroots sailing and bringing kids through to teach them to sail.
"The ones that come through our AI (Assistant Instructor) program and into dinghy instructors, it gives them other life skills that they wouldn't necessarily get if they weren't teaching or giving back in the community."
Parent Melanie Grant recognised the impact that Cheryl makes and said: "I am not from a sailing background, but my son came down to the sailing club and has had a ball, passed level one, and they just came out on the Tuesday night sessions. That Cheryl runs and he's just enjoying a sport that he's actually really good at and he's loving it. He even passed RYA level three last year when he was only trying to pass level two."
"Cheryl's got two young children. She's got a very busy life. She's got a really hectic job. She really puts herself out there and you can tell her love is sail. It comes right through. And I think she just wants kids to love sail as much as she did and have the opportunities that she did. And you can just see that shines through the way she talks about sailing."
Cheryl added, "I enjoy giving back to the community. I enjoy seeing the children enjoying their time, particularly seeing the, the children who've come through from learning all the way through into becoming assistant instructors and becoming instructors. And then hopefully one day there'll be some that'll replace me."
The RYA Scotland Impact Awards aim to recognise the value of those people over the coming season with a series of awards throughout the boating community in Scotland.
RYA Scotland is supporting Volunteers Week and launched the Volunteer Development Framework for organisations last June. The framework helps review and strengthen practices with regards to volunteering and in doing so create a sustainable volunteer culture for the future.