Hik­ing is not a pop­u­lar sport for most youths to­day. Most opt to go to a par­ty be­fore even ven­tur­ing out­doors for healthy ex­er­cise. Pres­i­dent of the­Uni­ver­si­ty­Health Fit­ness and Ad­ven­ture Fra­ter­ni­ty, Garvin B Sem­ple, tries his best to en­cour­age youths to en­gage in out­door ac­tiv­i­ties. He, along with his Vice Pres­i­dent Kevin Chan and Pub­lic Re­la­tions Of­fi­cer, Jonathan Joseph, has been run­ning the fra­ter­ni­ty for over a year. They spe­cialise in hikes, road trips and out­door ex­cur­sions.

The group fol­lows a ded­i­cat­ed mis­sion of pro­vid­ing a dif­fer­ent way of life for young adults, while build­ing a greater ap­pre­ci­a­tion for the en­vi­ron­ment. The hikes are most­ly on week­ends and the group has been mak­ing some­ex­tra­or­di­narymile­stones since its in­cep­tion. Thus far, mem­bers of the group have hiked to Rio Seco falls, Paria falls, S'aut Deau Bay and a host of oth­er sev­er­al scenic trails across the coun­try.

When asked about their most mem­o­rable hike, Vice Pres­i­dent Kevin Chan de­scribed a boun­ti­ful en­vi­ron­men­tal ex­pe­ri­ence com­ing from thetrek to Matelot. "Each pool along the trail was grad­u­al­ly get­ting larg­er and the scene it­self was vir­tu­al­lyin­de­scrib­able" he said with great pas­sion.

Apart from the thrill of phys­i­cal­ly over­com­ing the topog­ra­phy of our re­gion the fra­ter­ni­ty boasts of sev­er­al skills to make the hik­ing ex­pe­ri­ence much more ex­cit­ing. The ex­ec­u­tive is ful­ly trained in deep sea div­ing, safe­ty and first aid, as well as fit­ness ex­treme. Their ex­ten­sive skills are al­ways on dis­play - re­cent­ly catch­ing a puffer fish for all mem­bers of the group to see. The vi­su­al as­pects of the en­vi­ron­ment are just part of the ex­pe­ri­ence, but the group is al­so very ca­pa­ble­of ed­u­cat­ing itsmem­ber­son the fau­na and flo­ra of Trinidad and To­ba­go.

Dis­ci­pline,com­rade­ship and­mo­ti­va­tion­are just some of the val­ues for which Pres­i­dent Garvin B Sem­ple aims. He en­cour­ages youths to par­tic­i­pate in out­door ac­tiv­i­ties and thus takes ex­ten­sive pride in the group that he has formed. He stress­es on the broth­er­hood of the Fra­ter­ni­ty and how much an ex­pe­ri­ence it can be ex­plor­ing the out­doors.

If you want to find out more about the Fra­ter­ni­ty you can find them on Face­book by search­ing: Uni­ver­si­ty Health Fit­ness and Ad­ven­ture Fra­ter­ni­ty.

Sha­had Ali

Press Pass Cor­re­spon­dent

Uni­ver­si­ty of the West In­dies