By Christopher Clawson, Raven Patrol Leader
A few weeks ago, the other patrol leaders leaders and I were asked to run an evening for the scouts. We decided to do an escape room that we planned and made ourselves. The younger scouts loved it! It felt really good to see our hard work pay off, but I also loved working with the leaders to give them a fun Thursday night which they all enjoyed.
I was also really impressed by what the other patrol leaders made to help us, whether that was Jess’ marvellous props, Jack’s cleverly-planned anagrams or Megan’s hard work on Caesar ciphers, everybody pitched in and worked together. After all, that is kind of what Scouts is about. You work together to achieve something and in the end you really feel a sense of accomplishment.
Scout badges are a really good way to give you that feeling of achievement. Running our Scout night contributed to the YouShape award. The YouShape award is 4 badges that all centre around setting goals and being independent. For the awards you have to run and plan activities as well as set your own goals to achieve. Whilst it isn’t easy it is a really good way to let the Scouts chart their own course and do things themselves!
The badge is a great way to push yourself to an achievement because you know that there is a reward at the end and that it will be worth it. It lets scouts get control of the reins and allows the experience to be what they want it to be. This also helps the leaders see what the Scouts will enjoy so that they can plan ahead to create an enjoyable experience, which gives us a real sense of control over our time with scouting.
I think that Scouts is one of the most fun things you can do in your youth, as it really does help you prepare to do things yourself; and to be ready to work on your own as well as with others, and it does it in a fun and exciting way! Every meeting is different and it will never get boring. I’m in my 8th year and I’m still loving it!
