‘Be Prepared’. B.P. wanted his Scouts to be ready and resilient to whatever life throws at them, regardless of circumstance. It’s a pretty good motto in normal times, but never so much as now. When Lord Baden-Powell started the Scouts in 1907, no-one had any idea what would happen just a few short years later, but many Scouts were prepared to step up on the Front Line as well as the Home Front. Again, in 1945, Scouts were very welcome in the Armed Forces and were often deployed depending on the merit badges they had earned! Ambulance badge? Of to the Medical Corps! Cyclist proficiency? Messenger duty! Mechanics? Off you pop to Mechanical Transport! How on earth would we cope with a Global Pandemic? Actually, quite well!!
I have spoken to many people over the last few months who have been amazed that we have carried on Scouting. ‘How the heck do you do Scouting without getting together?!?’ Well, like a lot of people in February, I’d never heard of Zoom but I’m certainly up to speed now! The Scout Association closed all the Groups on the 17th of March. I spent the day looking through the badge requirements, trying to find things that could be done at home, without special equipment, or adding stress onto parents in this very weird and troubling time. My aim was to find things to be a distraction for the kids, without being a burden to the adults! We then had our first Zoom meeting on the 26th of March.
It has certainly been interesting trying to find Scouting activities to do whilst staring at a screen. How can I teach skills and see what the kids are doing? How can I make it fun and interesting without making Mum and Dad tear their hair out finding stuff? Well, we started off very simply! At first it was just nice to see each other!! We got together and chatted. We played a scavenger hunt for silly things – something red, something fluffy, something that makes you laugh. The next week, our young leader Sam, challenged them to make some origami by posting a video to follow. By this time, the schools had started sending work home and I needed to make sure we were a fun break from that.
I looked at what my two had been sent home from their two schools, what could I use from that for badgework? Reading, they’ll all be reading, so we talked about libraries and the book readers’ badge. Ryecroft Middle School set some homework to make a model of the solar system? Excellent, that’s a tick for their Space badge! I have no intention of re-inventing the wheel or doing things twice for the sake of it, if they’ve done it, that’s good enough for me! Then I started digging out things that I thought might be a benefit at home – Skills Challenge – Make a Cup of Tea, Wash Up, and Learn How To Use the Washing Machine! Cub Home Help badge and Beaver Animal Friend (take care of your pet for 6 weeks) requirements were warmly received by the parents, and these kids now have #SkillsForLife.
As we settled into a routine, it was great to give the kids chance to catch up with each other. The first 10 or so minutes were taken up with checking in and seeing how we were all doing. Especially for the younger ones, those without phones, this was sometimes the only way they could see their friends in those early months. Parents started uploading pictures of things they’d been up to; sewing and embroidery, stop motion videos of AT-AT’s, photo albums of walks, cakes and models they’d made. Our amazing young leader Sam did some video’s showing how to make crumble, banana bread, smoothies and his litter picking efforts. He also decided to run a marathon in June to raise money for Shelter, making over £800, and spoke to the Group about why he felt this was even more important during this crazy time.
After a month or two, we started to hit our stride. We did a toilet roll challenge video, which has been shared with the Mayfield Support Group on Facebook, featuring the kids ‘passing’ a toilet roll to each other to get it to Akela. Next challenge was a classic ‘egg drop’ where the children had to make a container from recycled materials that would keep an egg safe when dropped from a first-floor window. The video evidence allowed me to tick of several parts of different badges, as well as having a bit of a giggle! Microwaved mug cakes were a massive hit, if only because we could all do it together rather than one at a time like in the Hall, and I only had my mugs to wash up at the end! The District ran a virtual St George’s Day and we took part by sending in photo’s of the children in uniform and we had a Who Wants To Be A Millionaire quiz. The Scout Association launched a fundraising challenge to Walk To The Moo where they were asked to go for a walk, log their miles and make a donation. So many took part across the UK, we made it to the Moon and back!
In April, we joined over 84,000 of other Beavers, Cubs, Scouts, Explorers, and Leaders from across the world to set a new record by all camping in their gardens and homes. The event, organised by Northumberland Scouts, was joined by children from 67 countries including Malawi, Oman and Hong Kong. They set a series of Taskmaster-style challenges for everyone to join in with including, putting up/making you tent, making a hot drink, joining in a campfire song, wash up after breakfast, and call a relative to see how they’re doing. This meant that they also got a Night Away badge tick, even if they were in their living rooms. Scouting is all about being flexible and rewarding the best achievement possible and at the moment, I’m all about the positives!
The Leaders in the Scouting community really have stepped up this year. There is a Facebook Group solely devoted to virtual programme ideas and support. There are nearly 20,000 members and I dread to think how many files, photo’s and videos have been uploaded and shared. It has been a great place to talk to others in the same situation, laugh and cry, and share that which has worked, and has not. One of the biggest and best things to happen, was others offering to share their skills and time via Zoom. We have been lucky enough to have a ‘tour’ and talk from the Army Flying Museum in Stockbridge, Hampshire, a presentation from a Beaver Leader in Birmingham on her Sikh religion and her place of worship, 2 sessions on coding for their Digital Makers Badges, and an amazing poetry workshop with author Con Burdekin that had us all in stitches!
A slightly closer to home special guest was Katie Darlington, from Beaks and Talons, who did an amazing talk and demonstration with her harris hawk, Hoss. The kids really loved watching him fly and eat and asked some amazing questions. Katie regularly flies Hoss in the lanes by the Mill and we have booked her to come back when we are face to face again.
Sticking with the environmental note, we have also up-cycled old t-shirts into new bags, causing much hilarity as we also practiced our knots! Closer to home, we talked about how lucky we are to be home and safe and how some people weren’t. I did a drop off of two toiletry bags each for them to fill: one for a womens’ refuge and one for a homeless charity. This challenged them to think about others, what it would be like to lose everything and what would they need.
Our international areas have probably been our most exciting and one in particular showcases how we can make the best of a bad deal. One of the things each Section must do is find out about Scouting in another country and the older ones have to make contact. Under normal circumstances, this can be tricky and is usually a Leader standing at the front, talking about a foreign country. Through the FB Virtual page and the power of Zoom, we managed to see and speak to Cub Scouts in Australia! We spent an amazing 90 minutes chatting away, doing craft activities together, talking about badges, uniform, wildlife, and food! We joined with another Group in the UK, 1st Hammerwich in Lichfield District, and when we used Google maps we had a lovely surprise. Each of the three Groups has links to their local Church, Parades and such, and all three Churches are St John the Baptist! Such a wonderful coincidence! There have now been pen-pal links formed with the children talking via snail mail and email.
We have recently celebrated Diwali by making leaf decorated lanterns to attract the Goddess Lakshmi to bring us good luck and placed them safely outside. To celebrate Remembrance we made poppy using recycled pop bottles and thought about those who had gone before us. We had a fantastic music session from one of our amazing leaders, Rebecca, who went through how music makes you feel things, favourite types of music, the kids could give a performance if they wanted, and to top it off they learnt You’ve Got A Friend In Me in Makaton sign language! Amazing!
I got really brave and we did ome more cooking – Swedish Kanelbullar – cinnamon rolls and we took part in fika, the Swedish idea of having a hot brew, a warm pastry, and a good chat.
We even managed to celebrate our 5th birthday in lockdown, complete with cake and party hats! We have not stopped. I can’t say I was ‘prepared’ for this global pandemic and all it involved, but I feel fairly confident that we have rose to the challenge. And I do mean we. My ever-suffering husband asked me this week what I was doing with my first family on Thursday and what was the second having for tea…. Both he and the girls put up with a lot for me and my ‘hobby’ – if anyone tells you it’s only an hour a week, they’re lying!
The flip side of that, the reason I and all the other leaders do it, is to see those kids grow, learn, and thrive in their lives. Even during lockdown, we have had an amazing number of badges completed, Challenges done and major Awards finished. We have had three Beavers complete their highest Award, the Bronze Chief Scouts Award – Millie, Belle, and Darwyn, and five Cubs complete their Silver Chief Scouts Award – Lorelai, Kate, Felicity, Poppy, and Esmee. I may put the programme on, but they have to do the work and I couldn’t be prouder. I even managed to pick up an award myself, the District Commissioners’ Commendation for the effort put into the Group during these interesting times. I wish I could share it with all the members as it’s for them that I turn up, and I am more than Prepared to carry on for them, whatever the next 12 months throws at us!
If you want to join in with the fun, or sign your child up for the Group, please get in touch via First_Mayfield_Scouts@outlook.com or our FB page www.facebook.com/1stMayfieldScouts
Katy Lewis
