Gary Cooper

My Chalk Stream Experience – 2015

The three month Heritage Lottery funded volunteer internship I had with the Lincolnshire Chalk Stream Project, back in 2015, was a brilliant experience.

I hadn’t sat in an office for many years and to be thrown in at the deep end (pardon the pun) and be asked to organise a Festival of Free events for the October Half-Term Holidays, took me right out of my comfort zone. The team, lead by Ruth and Will, were brilliant and gave me the support and encouragement needed for this challenging role. Without their help, coupled with the faith and trust they placed in me to get the job done, I could have really struggled. As a team we got there! and all the events went ahead as planned.

I had a great time working with the Lincolnshire Chalk Stream Project and learnt so much from the team. I also had the fabulous experience of going up to Malham Tarn, in Yorkshire, to go on a full weekend residential Grass ID course, all part of the internship, thanks to Heritage Lottery Funding 

All in all, it was a fabulous three months and it really helped to get my confidence back after some recent set-backs.

I can thoroughly recommend taking on the internship challenge and hope that my Chalk Stream Experience could be yours too.

Gary