Friendly, considerate and loyal

Girl Scout Tegan Nicholson, 14. Photo: Chris Callinan.

Mark Grosvenor slipped on his black-and-white troop scarf in Greerton this morning, fastened it with a leather woggle and headed off to the office.

It was a salute to the brotherhood and fellowship that is scouting.

Across town in Welcome Bay, a Papamoa College uniform stayed in the closet on a school day. Tegan Nicholson was wearing her blue Scout uniform and the distinctive, identifying black-and-white scarf to class.

In her case a nod to the sisterhood that is also scouting.

They weren't alone. Around the world today about 40 million past and present Scouts wore their troop colours to work, to school to play, to wherever. It's International Scout Scarf Day.

Because today is about making the spirit of scouting visible – ‘Once a Scout, always a Scout'.

Mark was never a Kea, Cub or a Scout – but he has been a Scout leader and administrator for 36 years. 'It is very rewarding watching scouts growing kids and transforming them into fine adults.”

This from a man who gives four nights of his week, nearly 20 hours, to Scouts. And you don't have to look beyond Greerton to see that Scouting is healthy.

'If I snapped my fingers now, I could have enough kids to open another troop tomorrow. But if I snapped my fingers for leaders, nothing. We cannot get enough leaders.”

Monday night Scouts, Tuesday night two packs of Cubs at two venues, Wednesday night Venturers and Thursday it's Keas. 'More than 100 kids in all, from five years old to 18. And 18 leaders.

'And I say that with pride,” says Mark. Actually 105 kids – many of them 'dyb-ing” and 'dob-ing” and squatting like Wolves and doing the Grand Howl.

'Ah-kay-la! We'll do our BEST!”

It seems Scouting is roaring back from the brink.

At its zenith in the 1970s there were more than 50,000 kids involved in the Scouting movement in New Zealand – reading compasses, tying bowlines, sheep shanks and clove hitches and going camping. By 2006 there were just 12,000.

'Societal changes,” blames Scouts regional development manager Rob Robilliard, an ex-pat South African with a 45-year association with the movement.

'Long working hours, weekend shopping and in the 80s we were overrun by technology.

'It brought people inside and no-one had time.”

Now, Rob believes, parents are thinking again. And they are thinking this is not the life for a kid. 'They want them at least once a week to get outside and do something.

'They want their kids off the couch and doing something that doesn't involved buttons and fingers.”

And kids are responding. 'We believe kids vote with their feet. If scouting was boring they would leave,” says Mark, who is a big man, 120kg-plus with a big presence and a big reputation in the movement.

'My Scouting name is Toomai,” says Mark, which after the elephant-handler of Rudyard Kipling making. 'Because of my size my friend calls me Three-Mai,” laughs the scout leader. Scouting has taught him not to be easily offended.

In fact he believes he has a debt to scouting. He was unemployed, bored and despondent when he connected with the movement in 1980. It gave him new meaning in life.

'Scouting occupied me.” And now the University of Waikato office administrator is paying back.

In 2007 scouting in New Zealand had a major restructure – they started promoting scouting and employed regional development managers, took the movement out of Wellington.

'There's been eight per cent growth. We now have about 16,000 Scouts in New Zealand; and with leaders it's 21,000,” says Rob. And he talks excitedly about a small-town troop that had a five-year hiatus now starting up again. Small but significant steps are being taken.

The message has never changed – scouting is a value-based organisation with a focus on outdoor activity.

'Kids are buying in because it is not something they do every day. And if they bring a friend then it's obvious they are enjoying the experience” says ‘Toomai'.

Scouting is also learning by doing. 'We try not to be a classroom environment and that appeals to young people. Then they use the skills we teach them.

'They can make a rope ladder then they can climb that tree. They make a bivouac then they can camp out in the bush,” says Mark. They love the hands-on, the practical and putting their new knowledge and skills to the test.

And so they insist scouting is still, perhaps increasingly, relevant.

'We are still prepared to give kids an outdoor programme and manage the risks associated with it,” says Rob. 'Whereas schools are saying ‘Nuh!' With the new health and safety legislation we are not prepared to go there.”

But Scouts are prepared to give kids the opportunity to do anything from a walk along a river bank to climbing Mount Ruapehu. 'We are prepared to take our kids outdoors and give them those experiences and they want to go.”

Like 14-year-old Tegan Nicholson, a scout for eight years. Her parents sent her to scouts when she was six. 'I had no idea what to expect. But I love the outdoors and the bush skills.”

Aren't those for the boys? 'So?,” says a very indignant Tegan.

That's what Rob is finding. 'There are girls who want to join Scouts for those very reasons, the adventure and the practical stuff.” They join Guides for other reasons.

Rob and Mark – two men, two very committed scouts and two vastly different experiences.

'Having immigrated I fitted into New Zealand very easily because in scouting we speak the same language everywhere in the world,” says Rob. 'It's not spiritual or religious but it has been a great guide in life.

'It says: ‘This is the way you can live, adventurous, exciting and satisfying'.”

And whenever Mark sees a timid, quiet and shy kid walk into the scout den he sees himself, as he was, before he became a scout.

'And to watch them grow as individuals, and have a part in that development makes all those hours worthwhile.”

So if someone passes today wearing a scout scarf, make sure to shake his left hand. It's a sign of trust. Something special the scouts have. Just one of the many special things scouts have.

If you need any information on scouting, see: www.scouts.org.nz or: cniadmin@scouts.org.nz Or call 07 847 0788 or 0800 scouts.

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