Co-operation in the New Millennium
The ELSA Youth Meeting 2000. Mullsjö Sweden

Kevin Finnigan:

I was sat in the office one cold blustery night in Leeds scouring through the Internet…surely I could find something to interest me. Every time that I seemed to find something of interest, it always ended up with me screaming "Aaargh…not that kind of fun!" Eventually I had a look through the 'fantastic' BSA web-site, and it was here that I found information about a 'Youth Meeting in Sweden' for people who stutter. "Heh!"…I thought, "I'm young, and I stutter…great!" The Youth meeting was for people of 25 years or younger. The main purpose of the meeting was for young European people to forge relationships with each other for their own development and for the future benefit of others. The European League of Stuttering Associations and the European Youth Foundation of the Council of Europe funded the meeting, and they helped us a great deal towards the cost of the travelling and accommodation. It sounded like a really interesting trip, and I longed to attend…but I noticed that the closing date was already past…by a few months! Disaster! "Oh well " I thought…I'll send an email to them anyway, after all ...the worst thing they could do was to say 'sorry no'. Lord behold, a few hours later I received an email from Edwin Farr who was in fact the 'ELSA Chair' no less, stating that there had been a few last minutes cancellations and I could attend. I was off to Sweden…blimey!

Since my participation in this meeting was sooo last minute I had to find the cheapest flight that I could. Arriving at Leeds Airport my fears had subsided as I viewed a nice large new shiny plane waiting to take me to…France…erm…wait a minute that's not right…. 'oh no, it can't be that other one…there must be some kind of mistake'!?. I boarded the 'tiny rusting box with wings' and headed off. On arrival in Gothenburg, I was told that my luggage was currently having a great time with its 'new found' other luggage friends over in Amsterdam. I was so annoyed with the Airport staff that I didn't even stutter once throughout my rage!! I had thankfully taken a copy of my travel arrangements in my wallet, so with only a wallet and a book to my name, I headed off into Sweden...with a mixture of nervousness and excitement spinning around in my belly.

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