“Given the Government’s guidance, all face-to-face Scout meetings, activities and events have been suspended from Tuesday, 17 March 2020. This suspension applies to young people and adults, and will be until further notice.” The Scout Association UK.
Unsurprisingly this was the message we got a following the government announcement of restrictions being put in place. Immediately we cancelled all our section meetings (Beavers, Cubs, Scouts, Explorers) and frankly concentrated on our families and personal lives.
Then, as the situation became the “new normal”, we started to consider our young people, and whether doing something would benefit them and their wellbeing. We’d were reluctant to do anything in the first few weeks as schools were still working out how to work remotely, the amount of work the young people were getting varied wildly, and it was a very stressful and worrying time. However, a month after the restrictions were put in place, we tried our first online Cubs meeting with Blue pack.
It was very weird, but it was fantastic to see some of our Cubs. We did a scavenger hunt and just had a bit of a chat. The first meeting was only 30 mins, but it proved to us that it could work.
Our Scout troop and Red pack Cubs followed suit in the few weeks after. We even had a mass meeting on St Georges day of the whole group with over 45 on the call at one point before then going to do our clap for the NHS.
We dearly miss face-to-face scouting, we miss being able to do activities outdoors and go camping, but we are making the best of it. We’ve done cooking, drawing, quizzes, scavenger hunts, knot tying, mapping, games and have some more cool stuff planned. Several of the Cubs have been awarded badges they earned prior to the restrictions, or during. There are many badges that can be earned at home, and many more that we are adapting.
As leaders, the situation is challenging as we are having to think outside the box on what activities we can do over a video call, and not all of them are successful, but we’re learning!
It is unknown when we will be able to resume Scouting in-person, but in the meantime we hope we can keep the spirit alive and have some fun.
