The Family Issue
Scout’s Honour
Becca Taylor is Group Scout Leader of Scouting at Tanglin, the most recent in the group’s 30-year history. She tells us how the group has been faring during the pandemic and why she’s determined for it to succeed In 2013, Becca Taylor requested a place for her six-year-old son at the local Beavers group. She liked its emphasis on participation and being active, and connected with its ethos: “to do [one’s] best to be kind and helpful, and to love our world”. There was just one problem: for the group to offer him a spot, another adult leader would need to be found. “Another parent and I put our hands up and decided we’d do it together,” she tells. “Seven years later I found myself group Scout Leader – I guess it snowballed!” American-born Becca heads up 1st Singapore, one of three scouting groups in the Garden City. Part of the Rest of the World (RoW) district within British Scouting Overseas (BSO), it is among 16 groups that span the globe, from the Falkland Islands, to Kenya, Russia and China. The BSO provides UK scouting to 3,000 young people and is facilitated by around 600 adult volunteers like Becca. Most children start in the organisation as Beavers (between six to eight years old), before moving on to Cubs (eight-and-a-half to 10 years old), then Scouts (ten-and-a-half to 14 years of age). At Tanglin, there are currently three Beavers groups, a Cubs group and a Scouts group, with both boy and girl members. “It’s such a rewarding activity to be involved with as a parent,” Becca tells.
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While the group supports personal development, it’s also “just fun!” says Becca. “Often – and particularly when they are young – you are spending time with your own children and their friends. You share experiences that you probably wouldn’t otherwise. I’ve found myself at a camp on Bintan Island, jumping off a rope into the sea; dragon boating; designing and building kites... it’s just fun!” The Scouts group is led by five core values: Care, Respect, Integrity, Cooperation and Belief. Becca notes there is a natural overlap with Tanglin’s own core values and says that, while group meetings and outings are fun and enjoyable, they also serve a long-term purpose. “Our famous motto is ‘Be prepared’; and that’s what Scouting does: it prepares you for life. We are supporting young people in their personal development and helping them to make an active contribution to society.”
One of the ways that children have been encouraged to contribute is through charitable work. Before the escalation of the Coronavirus pandemic, the Scouts supported local community organisation Happy People Helping People through both donations and active service. “We went to a nearby hawker centre to help serve food to elderly people and give out NTUC FairPrice vouchers,” Becca says. “It was a very rewarding experience for all of us.” The group also helped clean and polish shoes collected by the Beavers to be sent out by the Ten Feet Tall Shoe Bank to people across South East Asia. And the work of the Scouts, though an SRC, is also very intertwined with the Tanglin calendar. “We are usually involved in the Christmas Fair and the Summer Fête, alongside the Girl Guides,” Becca explains. “We fundraise at events like those for the
