The John Muir Trust works to inspire and enable people of all ages to discover wild places and campaign for the protection of wild land.

In January, the Hays Travel Foundation granted the John Muir Trust £5,000 to enable the charity to work with children from schools in the North East of England to discover, explore and learn about wild places.

Rosie Simpson, fundraiser for the John Muir Trust said:” We are immensely grateful to Trustees of the Hays Travel Foundation for their support early this year which has meant we can continue to work with organisations such as outdoor learning specialist, ‘OASES’, to give children and young people of all backgrounds opportunities to discover and explore wild places which become experiences that nurture confidence, curiosity and understanding of our world.”

Recently, Gemma, our Hays Travel Crook branch Manager and her Assistant Manager, Chelsey, attended a session delivered to children from Abbeyhill Academy Sixth Form. On the day, everyone got involved in various activities such as collecting specific leaves and acorns, collecting “mini beasts” and a team building exercise called “Find the Tree”. These activities not only helped develop their knowledge about nature and the environment, but also allowed the children to develop essential communication and problem solving skills.

Chelsey had this to say about the day: “We enjoyed getting involved with the children and watching how the award helps them get out into the fresh air. This is helping the children appreciate the wildlife and local areas, by doing this the aim is for them to respect the areas and hopefully look after them in the future as they get older.”