To those young people planning to start the Duke of Edinburgh Award programme, the 1970s may sound like a long time ago.

But for those participants who were the first to receive their Gold Award in Bermuda in 1973 at Buckingham Palace, The Award continues to have lasting impressions.

And for those that spoke to The Royal Gazette about their time working to achieve their goals, they all believe that The Award will continue to help young people grow to become successful adults.

For Norman C. Pogson, or Dr. P as he is also known, the challenge of The Award was what sparked his interest. It was in 1967 when he saw a small ad in the paper advertising The Award.

"I was a student at the Bermuda Technical Institute at the time and four of us saw the ad in the paper and we went and checked it out," says Dr. P, an engineer who has worked for Cable & Wireless for 41 years. He is still an active member of The Award today and is currently the deputy chairman and expedition chairman.

One of the most exciting parts of The Award, for Dr. P, was a five-week trip to Kenya where he helped build classrooms and also climbed Mt. Kenya, the second-highest mountain in Africa after Mt. Kilimanjaro.

"People from all over the world came and our project was to build classrooms out of raw material including branches and leaves and the rich soil. The project's main purpose was doing community service outside of your environment," says Dr. P.

Stepping out of your comfort zone is exactly what The Award is prized for, and Dr. P believes he could have made a career out of many of the activities he was involved with through the programme.

For those who think there is nothing to do in Bermuda, he says he knows first-hand that there is plenty to do — you just have to look in the right places.

"There is always someone out there that can help you do what you want to do. There is no such thing as nothing to do."

During the programme he took up target shooting, metalworking and photography. He has since become a target shooting coach and has been part of the Bermuda Commonwealth contingency. He has also shown a number of his photographs at the Bermuda Society of Arts through the Multiple Exposure Photography Group.

"The Award exposed me to so many different people and things," he says. "It takes you outside of the box.

"The Award teaches you how to come outside of the box in order to progress in your life. You learn to stand on your own two feet and how to survive and keep safe," he adds.

Dr. P went on to get his engineering degree in Cornwall, England, and he was part of the first group of five Gold recipients to travel to Buckingham Palace to receive his award.

"I wanted to go to Buckingham Palace because it was a place I had never been before and it was, to me, a place of quality to receive the highest award."

Janel Sloan, who was also part of the Bermuda group to receive her Gold Award at Buckingham Palace, reiterates Dr. P's thoughts on the benefits of The Award.

"The Duke of Edinburgh Award opened doors for me and most significantly it taught me how to open doors for myself," reflects Ms. Sloan. "I have seen and done amazing things and I know that I have the potential to continue to do this for myself and to share it with other people."

Ms. Sloan studied art and design in London with a degree in photography and felt The Award experience was the catalyst for stepping out of her comfort zone in Bermuda and attending university in the UK.

"The experience in The Award allowed me to move to London and live on my own with confidence and appreciation for how people of different cultures live and move through their daily lives," she says. "I found it easy to move away from what I knew and to accept change — and English tea!"

Ms Sloan paid for her education and credited listing The Award on her resume as the reason behind securing work to pay her way through college.

She was a member of the Rangers in 1969 when her leader Mrs. Agnes Waddicor, who was also a major influence on her life, introduced her to The Award. She remembers now how Mrs. Waddicor was upset that she didn't wear her Rangers uniform to the award presentation at Buckingham Palace in 1973. Instead, Ms Sloan opted for the fashion of the time — a long patterned skirt and platform heels.

"I was so excited to be studying art in London and was blinded by the location, the art and the art student profile. It was a grand occasion, and again, I found myself surrounded by people from many countries in the middle of an event that was far removed from what I ever imagined as a child. My life lesson from this was, 'we can transport ourselves anywhere'."

But the most memorable part of her time participating in The Award was working at Lefroy House nursing home for two years.

"Although it was a long time ago, I remember every Saturday morning I would catch the Dockyard bus from Warwick to Boaz Island and walk the short distance from the main road to the bleak two-storey building that sat on the edge of the water," she recalls. "The exterior of the nursing home was unwelcoming, but inside there were many levels of warm caring being administered by care givers and nurses."

She says she saw the impact of the real world of ageing and physical dependency and adds that it was, of all the aspects of The Award, what contributed to her maturing into an adult.

"I learned a lot about patience and respect — and grew to appreciate the challenges that families have in caring for their loved ones," she says.

Peter Marsh was also hugely affected by his community service during The Award — time spent with the patients at St. Brendan's (now the Mid-Atlantic Wellness Institute)

"The biggest thing for me was working with the patients at St. Brendan's," says Mr. Marsh. "It was definitely the most rewarding experience giving our time to the patients — we helped with bathing and feeding them and took them out for walks."

Mr. Marsh heard about the programme through his Scout master John Swift, and four of his friends decided to take up the challenge instead of becoming an Eagle Scout — the highest rank in the Boy Scout programme.

"It was basically the decision between going through as an Eagle Scout when we were approached by Alan Brown and the five of us decided to get involved with The Award. Instead of competing against each other we would be competing against ourselves," he explains. The team of five, that also included Peter Shrubb, Tom Burns, Christopher Crick and John Jensen, did all levCrick and John Jensen did all levels of The Award together including the final challenge — a cycling expedition through Europe on ten-speed bikes.

"We went through France, Belgium, Denmark and some of Amsterdam. We stayed in farmhouses along the way and in the morning the people would come out and bring us croissants. We basically all wanted to do the European cycle ride and we went beyond what we was required," he says.

For the project the team collected different types of toilet paper from all over Europe. "You'd be amazed at the different types there are!" he says. "And they are all still in the log book."

Although the group don't often see much of each other these days and two of their fellow members have since passed away (Tom and Christopher), Mr. Marsh says The Award helped create lifelong friendships.

"At the time we were doing what any kids did which was sit around listening to music. This helped me build lifelong relationships that went far beyond The Award.

"Every single one of the guys that I did it with were in our wedding," says Mr. Marsh, who has been married for 35 years.

"The Award made life a bit more productive and made me a much more responsible adult but we still had a lot of fun."

Mr. Marsh says he would encourage kids to get out and do something different that they've never done before.

"You can do anything that you enjoy and doesn't have to be something that was done years ago," he says.

"Rather than sitting on the wall, as they say these days, it gave me something to do that I enjoyed doing and something that I definitely wouldn't have done before, such as helping out people that can't do for themselves at St. Brendan's."