Issue 111 Issue 111 February 2017 February 2017
From the Courtyard
From the Courtyard SAC Scouts Newsletter
CATHOLIC SCOUTING In this issue Feature of the Month.. - Catholic Scouting
Cubs.. - National Grand Howl - Cubs’ Weekly Activities
Scouts.. - Troop Ahoy! - Preparing yourself for camp
Coming up Easter Camp: Troop— 10—15 April 2017 Pack— 11—13 April 2017
Campfire Night— 13 April
A former scout of ours recently sent me the following contribution written by Michael McVeigh and I think it is very relevant to us. Scouting is based upon various principles and beliefs but God is the first to whom we promise to do our best. I think this write-up makes for very good reading and may lead some of our members to reflect on what we are doing and where we are going as an organisation. Edward Cassola GSL Do young people need an orientation towards God to be scouts, or does scouting help orient people to the divine? A LITTLE over eight centuries ago, St. Francis of Assisi discovered a new way to perceive God in his regular walks in the countryside. Life in the city was full of distraction and worry. There, the young son of a businessman felt heavily the burden of family expectation and the need to help build their wealth and social standing. In nature, he found a different vision for life, and a new way to relate to God that was unshackled from the burdens of the world. It was a Vision that would eventually inform a new rule for living) and give birth to the Franciscan order. “It is no use walking anywhere to preach unless our walking is our preaching,” St. Francis wrote. From the times when people painted pictures of animals on cave walls, human beings have looked to nature for a sense of the divine. There is a great sense of purpose that can be achieved by simplifying existence down to its most basic structures for survival. For this reason, going out into nature is often seen as a rite of passage for young men, one that’s still evident in many indigenous cultures today. But even in western cultures, an experience of camping out in the wilderness is part of many young people’s pathway into adulthood.
2017 Nature and Religion The Boy Scouts were first established by Robert Baden-Powell at the start of the 20th century. While their emphasis was on providing young men with practical skills for outdoor living like camping, woodcraft and hiking, there was a strong religious component to the movement from the very beginning. Indeed, the original Scout Promise included a commitment to do one’s “duty to God’.
From the Courtyard
CATHOLIC SCOUTING
Issue 111 February 2017
To Baden-Powell, and to others, there seemed little debate that there was a strong connection between going into the wilderness and seeking a connection with the divine. When asked about how religion came into scouting in a talk in 1926, Baden- Powell responded that, “It does not come in at all. It is already there.” Like St. Francis, Baden-Powell saw in nature a truth to be discovered and deciphered. “I do not suggest nature study as a form of worship or as a substitute for religion, but I advocate the understanding of nature as a step, in certain cases, towards gaining religion,” he said.
Best Translator
Feature of the Month
Many Catholics were initially sceptical at the fledgling scouting movement. But after reading one such disparaging account in a Catholic journal, French Jesuit Fr. Jacques Sevin decided he needed to learn more about it for himself. In 1913, Sevin travelled to England to meet with Baden Powell. He spent the summer there, joining scout camps and envisaging how he could bring it to France. Fr. Sevin began working on a French version of Baden-Powell’s handbook. Where the Anglican Baden-Powell had left the religious element up to each individual to discern for themselves, Fr. Sevin decided a deeper level of rigour was needed. He wanted scouting to not just be a path for people to understand themselves and their place in the universe, he wanted it to explicitly connect people with God. In the initial scouting handbook, Baden-Powell had written: ‘A Scout is good to animals’. Fr. Sevin’s version went: ‘The Scout sees in nature the work of God: he likes plants and animals’. He rewrote the principles each in a similar way, placing God at the centre. It was a work that found approval from Baden-Powell himself, who said that Sevin was the “best translator of [his] mind.” Fr. Seats first scouting troupe was forged in secret while he was in Belgium during the First World War. He finalised his scouting manual in 1920. That same year, the first World Scouting Jamboree took place in London, and it was there that Fr. Jacques Sevin, Jean Corbisier from Belgium and Count Mario di Carpegna from Italy decided to create an international umbrella organisation for Catholic Boy Scouts. The initial association included scouts from Argentina, Austria, Belgium, Chile, Ecuador, France, Hungary, Italy, Luxembourg, Poland and Spain - evidence of how widely and quickly the movement had taken hold across the globe. The scouting movement was becoming an ecumenical and even an interfaith one. Fr. Sevin himself helped create the French Jewish scouting association in France in 1928. There was at least one group, however, that would not find a home in the movement until more recent times — non-believers.
Interesting Question The secularisation of the West has presented a number of challenges to the scouting movement. One of these challenges is that while its founder believed faith was intrinsic to scouting, many today approach scouting without any underpinning belief at all. In some parts of the world, the adaptation has been a simple one. In Australia, for example, the Scout Promise has been adapted from ‘duty to God’ to ‘duty to my God’, which allows each member to bring their own interpretation of God into the promise. In Canada, a new version included a promise that uses ‘my beliefs’ instead of God. The United Kingdom created an alternative oath which atheists could choose
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From the Courtyard
CATHOLIC SCOUTING
Issue 111 February 2017
to take, which removed any reference to God, similar to how Muslims had already been allowed to pledge allegiance to ‘Allah’ and Hindus to ‘my Dharma’. However, the Boy Scouts of America in the United States have yet to open up membership to those without faith, although members of other religions have long been welcomed. For them, ‘duty to God’ remains a key component of scouting. The debate raises an interesting question about how the attitude one takes in going into the wilderness shapes what a person will find there. Do young people need an orientation towards God to be scouts, or does scouting — with all its encounters with the natural world — help orient people to the divine? This is a question that is difficult to answer.
Social Dimension The 2007 film Into the Wild tells the true story of a young man, Christopher McCandless who abandoned his possessions and all his money and went to Alaska to live alone in the wilderness. Like St. Francis, the simple life in the wilderness represented for McCandless an escape from the burdens of the world, a way to find happiness. Yet his diary reveals another more unexpected truth that he encountered there: Happiness is only real when shared. In a similar way, Fr. Jacques Sevin, who was declared venerable by Pope Benedict XVI in 2012, understood, and wrote into his scouting guidelines, that the work of the scout must be ‘social’ in every sense. Scouting is a process of apostleship as much as it is of self-discovery. “What a missionary scouting cannot do without, what makes its action fruitful, is its supernatural capital, the deepness of its faith, the richness of its charity, in other words, the wonder of its holiness,” Fr. Sevin wrote. St. Francis of Assisi understood that the wilderness can show us how to be saints, but we need to return to the world to live as saints. Fr. Sevin, too, hoped that scouting would lead other young men to sainthood. “Holiness belongs to no time, no country... so there can be, there must be holy scouts and some kind of scout holiness,” he wrote. “We all have the duty to arouse it in our boys and more than the right to try and find it humbly in ourselves.” By Michael McVeigh Messenger of St. Anthony January 2017
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From the Courtyard
Issue 111 February 2017
GSL’S NOTE Our GSL tells us what’s on. Four years
Four years ago this month, Cubbie went home. Although he is longer here, he has never been forgotten. He remains with us in spirit. May he continue to rest in peace
Hoodies The hoodies have finally arrived and been given to members who paid their subscriptions. Any one who would like to buy a spare hoodie may do so for €25. Some sizes are however already out of stock and we are about to re-order soon.
Easter Camp
GSL’s note
Easter camp is fast approaching. Please ensure that you fill in the circular for camp attendance and the separate form for the campfire event for parents and fiends. We look forward to all parents and friends to attend a campfire on Thursday April 13th. Kindly submit your camp fees in advance as this enables us to have a good idea of what food and beverage requirements we need. It also helps our quartermaster to plan what tentage and other equipment is required.
QM store I am glad to announce that the quarter master store is now ready. A number of rovers led by RCC Pierre Sant and QM Luke Maistre finally completed the task and now we can start to establish some order at our headquarters.
Humble request for support The Group needs to acquire or buy a new computer and a TV (at least 40") in order to provide better audio visual presentations to it's members. If any parents would be able to help us in acquiring them for a favourable price or no cost at all we would be very grateful.
Founder;s day happened to fall on a Wednesday this year, so we made the most of it, highlighting scouting elements in all sections of the group. Clockwise from top left: Pack—tent pitching, Troop—Map and compass skills, Rovers— Logistics and planning, Unit—Maintenance.
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From the Courtyard
GSL’S NOTE
Issue 111 February 2017
Marathon 5th March On Sunday 5th March our members (Scouts, Ventures and Rovers) are helping out as race marshals for the Annual Malta Marathon at Ta’Qali. We are meeting up early at 7am and should be ready by 11:30am. By the time you have read this, the marathon would probably already have passed but it would be good to know that we have taken part in this event since the very first edition, over thirty years ago.
Team building event
GSL’s note
On February 3rd our Rover crew organised a team building event for a private company as part of our fundraising events. It turned out to be another successful and pleasant event and all participants really enjoyed it. Thanks goes to AGSL Mark P. Borg for coordinating the events and a good number of fellow rover crew members.
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From the Courtyard
Issue 111 February 2017
NATIONAL GRAND HOWL
Some members of the pack attended the National Grand Howl - An event organized by IHQ to celebrate 100 years of cubs in Malta. On Saturday the 21st of January, the Cubs from St Aloysuis Collage Scout Group participated in a National activity. IHQ organized a National Grand Howl to celebrate the 100 years of Cubbing in Malta and all over the world. It was prospected to happen on the 16th of December, the same day that the first Grand Howl was done in 1916. Due to the bad weather, this event had to be postponed and was held in January instead. I, for one, was very excited for this event. It was a celebration of nostalgia. It was a milestone that I was happy to live through and experience. It was definitely a day that I would choose to re-live. All groups from Malta, which had a Cub section, were invited to the event. We met at Ta’ Qali in the morning. The fields were covered in blue uniforms, but different coloured scarves from the different groups. All Cubs were asked to join the circle, where they would perform the grand howl and renew their
From the Pack
promise, as we do at the beginning and end of every meeting. They played games with Cubs from different groups. It was definitely fun to reunite with friends from other groups. As a cub leader, I am glad that I have had the opportunity to experience such an event – I am sure that the Cubs did too.
Ilaria Zammit Assistant Cubscout Leader
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Cubs and their leaders attend the National Grand Howl.
From the Courtyard
CUBS’ WEEKLY ACTIVITIES
Issue 111 February 2017
We’ve made it into our second month of weekly activities. Here’s what the cubs have been up to this month. Wednesday 15th February Wednesday 15th February it was my turn to organise the weekly activity for the cubs. I decided to focus on the Cub Programme 'Our Country' sections which focus on important towns in the Maltese Islands, namely Valletta, Mdina and Cittadella. I prepared a presentation about the 3 towns, with a few slides on each town. Each section started with a short video highlighting various aspects and important buildings in each town, followed by slides with information about the towns. Following the presentation the sixes were each given a sheet with three columns in it one for Valletta, one for Mdina, and one for Cittadella. They were then given various statements with facts about the different towns and they were asked to work together to decide which statement belonged to which town,
From the Pack
and stick them in the appropriate columns. The cubs enjoyed the activity especially the final challenge of trying to remember which statement belonged to which town Joanna Ellul—Riki Tinki Tavi
Wednesday 22nd February I used this session on Founder’s Day to highlight a fundamental scouting skill—Tent Pitching. Lots of our younder cubs have only been to a couple of camps so this was a great opportunity to teach them the skill. The cubs eventually pitched one of our Vango tents, after we showed them all the equipment and what to do with it, how to attach the poles and gave them a helping hand. Everyone quickly discovered that pitching tents requires teamwork to reach the common common goal. After the tent was pitched I gave the cubs a short lecture about how to take care of their tents. Liam Curmi—Kaa
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From the Courtyard
CUBS’ WEEKLY ACTIVITIES
Issue 111 February 2017
Wednesday 1st March My weekly activity was based on a badge. The boys worked towards the Artist’s Badge where they had to prepare an A4 size poster promoting Cubing in Scouting, a Cubs event or promoting keeping the environment clean. Then, during the meeting we worked on creating and designing a greeting card, and colouring a picture - using mosaic. The cubs learnt that, while they all tried, they could not take getting the badge for granted. The reason being that this was the Artist badge, and not all boys are artists. But for those who are not, it was still a learning experience. All Cubs tried their best, as their motto says. Ilaria Zammit— Raksha
Wednesday 8th March For my session, I organized a scavenger hunt. Unlike most scavenger hunts, the cubs would remain within HQ while they tried to complete challenges in sixes. Challenges included locating items, answering scouting related questions, and physical activities such as knot-tying. I did my best to make use of the boys’ scouting knowledge but also to ensure they had fun. The cubs gave it their all, with the boys who focused on teamwork doing predictably better than those who didn’t. The results were: Browns
90/150
Blues
110/150
Yellows
115/150
Greys
130/150
Greens
135/150
Andrew Zammit Montebello—Tabaqui
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From the Courtyard
TROOP AHOY!
Issue 111 February 2017
On 10 February 2017, a troop of adventurous, seafaring scouts made their way down to Mistra Bay for a day of raft building and races.
From the Troop
Building the Sea-Craft
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From the Courtyard
TROOP AHOY!
From the Troop
Ready, Set...
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Issue 111 February 2017
From the Courtyard
TROOP AHOY!
From the Troop
...Go!
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Issue 111 February 2017
From the Courtyard
TROOP AHOY!
From the Troop
...And come back, please!
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Issue 111 February 2017
From the Troop
From the Courtyard
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TROOP AHOY!
Issue 111 February 2017
From the Courtyard
PREPARING YOURSELF FOR CAMP
Issue 111 February 2017
As Easter camp draws nearer and nearer, SL Bernard Maniscalco provides some tips to keep in mind for this camp, and all the others! Personal Preparation
From the Troop
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Always wear-in new shoes. Never wear brand new shoes straight to camp. This will cause discomfort and possibly blisters Check your Rucksack properly for tears, as a torn rucksack at camp is very inconvenient. Always pack at least two days before the camp starts. This way you will avoid quick thinking and the possibility of leaving important things behind. Make sure you have comfortable, waterproof ground mats as humidity and stones will make your nights sleepless and restless. Buy enough mosquito-repellent to last you the camp. Mosquitoes are a nuisance and can cause discomfort. Batteries for your torch are essential for night activities. You need to buy at least one spare set.
Waterproof your kits as best as possible. Nobody knows what the weather will be like, especially at Easter camp. If it rains you wouldn’t want all your clean clothes to get wet on the first day. Make sure that you are not sick. If you have a cough or a cold, treat it well before you come up to camp. During camp, it will not get any better, only worse. If you are feeling sick SPEAK UP! ALWAYS ASSUME THE WORST… Always be prepared for the worst. Prepare yourself for the coldest weather, the roughest camp, the most uncomfortable nights. A scout that is well prepared will survive endlessly under the harsh conditions of camp. If you follow these guidelines your stay at camp will be more comfortable.
Patrol Preparation
Campfire ~ A campfire is a time where you entertain your friends around a campfire. ALL stunts and songs need to be planned and practiced BEFORE camp starts. So if you haven’t done nothing yet… GET GOING!!!
Patrol Time ~ During Camp, the Patrol is expected to achieve a number of Scout Standard tests to achieve the Mastery badge instructed by the troop leaders. Patrol time is the perfect time to prepare yourselves for these tests. Ask your PL to help you out.
From the Courtyard
PREPARING YOURSELF FOR CAMP
Issue 111 February 2017
Camp Dos and Don’ts
From the Troop
It is important that these rules are followed to ensure a better camp for you and your fellow scouts. Here is simple list of Do’s and Don’ts for this camp. Do’s
Don’ts
Pack your bags yourselves so that you know exactly where all your stuff is Make sure you have a groundsheet under your sleeping bag Wash properly. At camp you have to scrub more!! Remember to bring along your table manners with you Remember your wash kit… and USE it every morning Change your clothes regularly Sleep in pyjamas NOT in dirty jeans and socks. Change your underwear DAILY – change your socks more often if possible Use the toilet when ever you need to. Constpation can be serious. Keep your tents clean and tidy Keep shoes outside the tent at night (cover them with plastic) Bring a sun hat and sun cream and use them Work with your patrol to have a better chance to win the camp Look after your personal equipment If you are not feeling well inform the Leaders immediately - Don’t be shy. Duties are fun especially when they are done well!
Don’t sleep with many layers of clothes, it will take much longer to get warm No big knives (like survival knives) – (3 finger rule) Absolutely no food inside the tents Mobiles are not allowed at any time during the duration of camp. No camp beds or inflatable mattresses Your PL is your friend, don’t make his life a misery Do not leave equipment lying around!
Bernard Maniscalco Scout Leader
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