An Old Passion Rediscovered

A few years back I used to be heavily involved with scouts. Have my Chief Scout Commendation, wood badge, the works. Anyway when I started with KFC I slipped out of scouting, then started up my own family and that was that. A few weeks back, I was walking through town and came across a scout hall. I stopped in to say hi, thinking it might be nice to get back into it. I came along to a couple of nights and was horrified by how disorganised it was, kids running riot, no real structure. A nightmare. I was going to say thanks and see ya, when the Group Leader popped by my work and asked if I would like to go camping with a four or five of them and a couple of leaders. I had nothing better to do and said sure. Showed up on the day, and sure enough, no plan in mind, it was all "We'll just wing it". That isn't how I do things, so I roughed out a quick program for the two days the scouts would be there and said how about it? They agreed, though they felt the scouts would run riot and ruin it. But funnily enough the five scouts that were there really enjoyed themselves, kept busy and there was very little friction. Upshot is that my plan to leave got cancelled and I was placed in charge. After three meetings doing it my way, with an organised plan, things have changed a lot. Tonight was the breakup for school holidays and several of the parents came up to me after the meeting to thank me for the changes and say how much they enjoy the new direction for the troop. And I have discovered something that somehow, somewhere, I forgot. I enjoy this a lot. I ove working with kids that age, teaching them skills and showing them that there is more to life than games consoles and television. I am looking forward to next term and the programme I have planned, which will introduce them to the traditions that scouting has and start preparing them for the jamboree at the end of the year.