Community

A lot is said today about the need for people to do stuff for their local communities. The idea being that by doing things in the community, people are giving back.

Of course, Scouts (and other youth organisations to be fair) have been doing this for well over 100 years, from the traditional image of helping old ladies cross the road to going to help at refugee camps in Africa.

Recently, my Group planted lot of Daffodil bulbs (well over 1000 actually) in the grounds of the Church that sponsors us and at its sister Church as well. We’d also planted some bulbs and trees at the campsite the Cubs had been camping at the weekend before.

Also, we paraded from our meeting place to the Church on Remembrance Day and by doing this we commemorated those who had been killed in war (including the 13 from our own Group).

Both the bulb planting and the parade were well attended, and the planting at least, was enjoyed by all who came. However, these type of activities are not the, for want of a better word, ‘sexy’ ones! They can be most rewarding personally though.

When I was doing my Queens Scout Award, we did some work at the local convent over a couple of summers. This was a huge old house which had been donated to the Community of St. Francis by the old lady who owned it. She kept part of the house and the nuns kept an eye on her. As kids I’d been there often with my Mum and sister to visit the old lady, so when it was time to do some community work for the Queens Scout Award, the nuns knew me and gave us some jobs. We enjoyed working there as we were in and around the large gardens and it was a lovely environment to be in. We were a touch naughty by playing music somewhat loudly (including the most certainly unsuitable for a convent, Rocky Horror Picture Show soundtrack!), but the nuns tolerated us! I enjoyed those two summer’s work and I always think it was a shame when the nuns sold the house and left.

As Scouts we need to carry on doing work in, and for, the community, but perhaps we do need to ‘blow our own trumpets’ a bit more often, to show that our young people are putting stuff back into their communities and not just taking.