Be Prepared .........for fun! (Scouts)

Member Name: Ghumphrey

Product:	Scouts
Date:	01/07/09 (81 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great fun for young people and learn skills that last a life time.

Disadvantages: Not seen to be cool beyond the age of 12

Scouts

I joined the scouts when I was about five after a year belonging to the beavers (pretty much junior scouts). I joined 5th Belfast. I was told at the time that the 5th meant it was the 5th biggest scout group in Belfast but not sure if this is actually the truth. I can actually remember my very first night at the scouts. I wasn't the only new member and we were asked what colour of woggle we wanted to join. There was a real commotion as people tried to entice us to join up where their colour. I opted for yellow cause my friend from school was already there and from then on the yellow woggle was my group.

What are the scouts?

The scouts are a world wide youth organisation. It was found by Lord Powell who was a general in the British Army. It is designed to help develop young people physically and mentally so that they can become productive members of society. It first began in 1907 and now has around 38 million members 216 countries.

What do scouts do?

My scouts were very much activity based. Each year we would pick a new area of interest or a badge that we would work towards achieving. This could be a wide variety of topics such as map reading or first aid. We would then get practical lessons in these new skills and once we got to certain proficiency we would gain a new task. As well as this we used to play loads of really fun games including ball tig, horse and jockey, weirdly created relay races and loads of other physical activities.

Occasionally we had weekends away where we got a chance to meet other scout groups and take part in even more activities.

My opinion

I stayed in the scouts until I was about 9. I only really left at that stage because I moved house and it was too far away. Whilst I probably could have transferred to another group I never really bothered and joined a normal youth club instead. It is day though the scouts was second to none. Even now over 20 years on I still have fond memories of my days spent at the scouts and some of the great games we used to play. There was a serious side to the scouts but to be honest it just seems like common sense now so on that level it must of worked. I remember once spending a while in front of shops with a friend so that we could help old ladies across the street with their shopping. We needed to do it to get a badge but it still taught me that it was nice to help other people and it's something that has stuck with me through life. My scouts were all male but increasingly now they have been taking girls into their groups.

Overall I would highly recommend the scouts to any young person between 5 and 15 as they will learn some useful skills and ultimately they will have a whale of time whilst they were doing it. I cant help think if things such as the scouts were made compulsory we wouldn't have groups of hoodies terrorising olds ladies. Ultimately thought is a great and very worthwhile organisation.

Summary: Great memories and lots of fun had.