Doing things differently

Thursday 14 May 2020

Despite the lockdown forcing usual activities like volunteering and camping to be scrapped, a number of students involved in things like Scouts, and others working towards their Duke of Edinburgh Awards, have found ways to get around the restrictions.

The 1st Guernsey Sea Scouts have been camping in their own gardens, crafting their own woggles, navigating their way on walks around their homes and cooking for themselves - which in turn has helped one of their young leaders work towards her DofE award.

Volunteer Jenny Hutchins told the Youth Commission, which oversees the Bailiwick's DofE programme, that the group she helps out with have come up with a number of different ways to keep themselves busy since physical meetings had to stop.

A spokesperson for the Youth Commission said they were "thrilled to hear from so many amazing young people that have taken it upon themselves to find ways to continue their DofE award whilst sticking to lockdown restrictions. Many of our young people volunteer in charity shops, for large groups and other activities that have stopped for the time being."

Pictured: Some of the scouts have been doing different activities during lockdown.

Ms Hutchins said her young charges had plenty of ideas to keep their own Scouting progress going, which has in turn helped her too.

“The Scout group that I volunteer for as a young leader has been trying to do an event every week. We have done a fitness challenge, an expedition challenge, a quiz challenge and so much more. The mission for the leaders is to turn normal scouting activities into something achievable for the scouts in their homes. We mainly communicate using a Facebook group, which means people can post pictures of their attempts at the activities, it makes it feel like we are still doing things as a group even though we’re separated.”

A number of the Scouts took part in a recent overnight camp, which in turn led to them honing their cookery and craft skills.

Pictured: Jenny Hutchins, socially distancing from a fellow camper, during a recent activity.

“I recently organised a camp from home, that joined in with a global project," said Jenny. "The event had thousands of scouts all camping at the same time. The response from the scouts and parents was very positive. About 15 young people took part. We set them three challenges: to create and sleep in a tent, to cook some food and to build a flagpole. The Scouts were inventive with their responses, especially with constructing their tents as many didn't have a normal tent to put up. 

“I think it’s really important to keep Scouts going as it stops people from being isolated, and personally I've found that the huge variety in the activities that we do at scouts keeps me motivated to try something different. A few weeks ago, the challenge was to make a scout woggle. We had everything from tennis balls to Lego to Nerf gun bullets being used and we are currently contributing to a liberation day newsletter, that our group Scout leader is sending to a former group leader, who is now in a care home. Once I put my mind to it I found it was really achievable and worthwhile to continue volunteering with Scouts.” 

Pictured top: All images provided by the Youth Commission.