Limerick scouts win big at national scouting competition
SCOUT groups from Limerick won a number of awards at the national scouting competition last weekend.
Over 700 Scouts from all over the country descended on the Salesians Agricultural College in Pallaskenry for the Phoenix Challenge, Scouting Ireland's Premier Scoutcraft Competition.
Limerick Scout County was represented in the Phoenix Challenge by Scouts from the 23rd Limerick Caherdavin and 34th Limerick Pallaskenry.
After several months of training, the hard work paid off with the Pallaskenry Scouts picking up a Gold Standard Award (given to teams who get 80% or higher of the available marks) while the Patrol from Caherdavin earned a Silver Award (65% to 79% of the available marks).
The event started on Thursday morning when the 59 Patrols of 12 Scouts had six hours to set up their campsites.
They had to pitch their tents and build a series of Camp Gadgets such as a dining table, altar fire and food preparation table.
The Scouts had to contend with high winds which made this task incredibly difficult.
When they awoke on Friday morning, four Scouts from each Patrol departed on an overnight expedition through Curraghchase Forest Park to the Limerick Scout County Campsite.
The expedition tested their survival skills as they had to build shelters and live off limited food supplies.
Meanwhile, the remaining eight Scouts who remained in Pallaskenry had two days of skills challenges such as Pioneering, Navigation and First Aid around the grounds of the college and the village of Pallaskenry. The event concluded on Sunday with the closing ceremony.
This was the first event of its scale run by Scouting Ireland run since 2019 and was a massive undertaking by a team of over 200 volunteers from across Scouting Ireland with several Limerick Scouters playing key roles in the organisation.