A shortage of leaders is putting this Tipperary Scouts club at risk of closure
Scouting in Thurles has a long history. The 28th Tipperary Thurles Scout Group and its forerunner, the 17th, began life way back in the early twentieth century, and literally generations of Thurles boys and girls have learned vital life skills through scouting.
Once known as ‘the boy scouts’ from its beginnings, scouting today is open to all and was ahead of its time in opening up to girls in the membership and women as leaders, long before it became fashionable for youth groups of any kind to do so.
To quote two of our movements favourite slogans, scouting takes place ‘mostly outdoors since 1909,’ and scouts ‘learn by doing’ wherever possible. This emphasis on practical, hands-on education amidst nature is hard to find anywhere else.
Indeed, there is probably no other organization today to match scouting in its approach to youth education.
The Scout movement teaches young people to hike across the wooded hills, finding their way by map and compass. Scouts learn to safely set up and keep a campfire for warmth and cooking, and to sit around the fireside and enjoy the camaraderie at the end of a busy day outdoors.
Our scouts learn teamwork and leadership skills as they work: even the simple task of putting up a tent teaches co-operation. Emergency skills, including fire safety, water safety and first-aid skills are lessons our members can take with them throughout their lives.
Scouts as young as twelve learn to build a natural shelter from materials available in the woods and spend the night in it.
The feeling of achievement these young people get from such achievements can be seen on their glowing faces!
The scout group engages with other organisations too, and the Order of Malta, An Garda Síochána,, the Fire Brigade, and Search & Rescue have all taken our scouts through what they do and how their organisations support the community.
We then take this idea through to the ‘community champions’ concept where scouts take pride in serving their community themselves through activities such as litter-picking and our ‘leave-no-trace’ ethos when learning outdoors.
In recent years, Thurles Scouts have visited places as far apart as the Natural History Museum in Dublin, the fascinating Naval base at Haulbowline, and just before covid hit, we took a group to the pretty and historic Welsh town of Conwy.
Scout leaders are simply adults who volunteer to help bring all of this to our youth members– much of it not available to children through any other organisation today.
Scout leaders themselves learn much through their involvement: training in back-country skills is accessible, formal training in child protection is given, and, just like our younger members, many of us forge strong bonds of friendship through these activities.
But now all of this is under threat.
Leaders
The number of leaders has declined slowly in recent years, and now we have barely enough to function. If we cannot maintain a safe child-to-adult ratio, we will have no option but to close.
After the damage done by covid, the prospect of yet another avenue for happy learning and safe socialising being closed to our children are surely not to be allowed to happen!
Are you interested in helping our young people to learn teamwork, valuable life skills and an appreciation of the natural environment, all while enjoying time under the sky? Call Laura at 083 1406880 or find ‘Thurles Scouts’ on Facebook, and say hello!
SCOUTS: Where else would you learn to bake bread over a campfire deep in the woods?