Be Prepared! But are we?
Morgan as a Beaver
Recently the person who ran the local scout group decided to step down and there was a big recruitment drive to get some new leaders in to prevent the troop folding.
Out local scout troop has an active beaver, cub, scout and explorer section which covers ages from 5 up to 18. Boys and girls can go along and they do some pretty cool stuff, especially once they get a bit older.
Morgan is currently a beaver and he has enjoyed putting on his beaver “costume†(his uniform) and going along each week, playing games with his friends without his mum and dad looking over his shoulder!
I was a bit reluctant to get involved with the Beaver section as I think it is important for Morgan to be able to do some activities without us there to keep an eye on him. He’s meeting children who don’t necessarily go to his school and has got back in touch with one of his best friends from nursery who went to a different school.
I do think it was important though to keep the troop going and if they needed people to signup to do this then I was willing to put myself (and Alan!) forward. Whilst not so crucial for the younger sections having a local group like this which 11-18 year olds can be part of is really important. They go camping, climbing, on night hikes as well as helping out with community projects and generally having fun doing stuff they wouldn’t normally do elsewhere. And while they are doing that they are not hanging around the streets being bored and getting into trouble elsewhere.
Anyway, to cut a long story short, they did manage to sign up a lot of new leaders to help run the troop as well as formally getting parents to sign up as helpers for the weeks extra help is needed. Alan and I are going to be helping with the scouts and explorers with me going on a more regular basis doing the weekly activities and Alan being on hand to do more of the outdoor activities.
There are a few formality hoops for us to jump through before we are officially assistant leaders but we’ve been helping out for a couple of months now and I’m really enjoying myself. The members of the scout and explorer groups have been really welcoming and I had loads of fun helping them put on a panto just after Christmas. I’m learning new stuff all the time as well. Who knew you could cook pancakes over an almond…yes really, we set nuts alight and used the heat to cook pancakes and popcorn….fairly successfully I might add.
So are we prepared? Probably not but I’m sure we’ll get there. There’s a group of us new to helping out and along with the help of those that have been doing it a lot longer than us I’m sure we’ll get there. Only trouble is, Morgan has decided what the Scouts do is much more exciting than what the Beavers do and has been coming along to Scouts with me and even managed to cook his own pancake over a nut last week…..I’d even go as far to say that he probably had the best pancake of the night, but maybe I’m just a biased!
