Scouting for All

By Haider Janjua

During my first year, I came to know about the Part Time Jobs and Volunteering Fair from one of the countless E-Mails we get (I think I am the only student who somehow takes time to at least read the subject every day and then delete! :)). The fair takes places usually in the 2^nd or 3^rd week every semester.

I had a great time during the fair while lots of freebies, signing up for almost everything and somehow managing to evade the countless dominoes people trying to bombard me with vouchers. Soon  I came to this stall which was of “SCOUTS” and, being interested in outdoors adventure sports, I signed up to volunteer.

After a few days, I was contacted by the 142^nd Fulwood Scouts and I decided to volunteer as an Assistant Scout Leader. Scouting is a worldwide organisation which helps young people to develop physical, mental and spiritual skills through different fun activities. It has a strong focus on outdoors and survival skills. I chose the beaver scouts on Wednesday (because Aerospace people have this gigantic amount of classes, especially first years, so a free Wednesday afternoon is lucky). Beaver Scouts are children between the ages of 6-8 and it is the smallest group. 

The main job of Assistant Leader is to help the group leader in organising various activities and then, in turn, help the beavers during these activities. Sometimes you are given the task of managing the record as well.

Lego night with the beavers

We meet on Wednesday evenings for an hour. The session starts with a short game while the beavers are arriving. Then there is the main activity and near the end, beavers are given some biscuits and juice. In the end there is a closing ceremony after which parents have to drag the beavers home (literally).

Pet shop visit

Closing Ceremony

Let me tell you about some of the activities. Last week, we did tie dyeing (I am so excited to get my handkerchief this week!!) and the week before, we made towers from waste bottles and boxes (it’s hard to convince a beaver to not take the tower home when he is clinging to it and wouldn't let it go). The best thing is that you also get to do separate things. I have played Quasar (Beaten easily by children), helped them decorate Christmas bulbs, went for a walk and to a pet shop, made a mini movie to send to Aussies and even wrote a script for a beaver’s puppet show.

Puppet show and Bell ringing

It is not only a way of relieving stress from all the university deadlines looming but also a lot of fun. It actually builds your confidence, teamwork and leadership skills which are quite essential for any job. It can also be included in the HEAR (requirement is 10 hours in an academic year which is quite easy) + being an international student, you learn a lot about English culture (Guy Fawkes Night, Pancakes Day etc).

And this is not all. You also get to know some amazing people. So I would advise you to try and squeeze in some time for volunteering. And scouting is not the only thing you can do. There are countless other activities and stuff that you can choose from. Just go to the volunteering office in student union and get to know about all the exciting stuff or go to the volunteering fair at the start of the term like me!

Haider aka. Woodpecker (Yes we also get to choose animal/birds names as well!)