Western St Catherine scouts group target 500 boys

Come the year 2021 the local parish body – an affiliate of the Scouts Association of Jamaica – aims to have 500 boys active within its service.

The Western St. Catherine district spans a geographic space from Innswood to the Clarendon/St Catherine border and Bellas Gate up north.

“Our projection for the next two years will be 500 cubs and scouts,” Leonie Anderson, district commissioner of the Western St. Catherine Scouts Association, told Old Harbour News at the start of Scout’s Week 2019 which got underway on February 17 with a church service at Refuge Temple Apostolic Church in Old Harbour.

“The breakdown will be 350 cubs and 150 scouts,” she added.

A boy between the ages of seven and 10 is classified as a cub, while scouts are boys 11 to 16 years old.

To achieve its target Anderson says the team is on a mission and work has begun to reactivate dormant scout groups in some schools within its jurisdiction.  Already, three leaders have been identified for Bartons and Good Hope primary schools and the Tacius Golding High School where they are undergoing leadership training, she told Old Harbour News last week.  

They have embarked on getting an Old Harbour community group started, comprising of boys who have left primary institutions but without a home group. This Old Harbour scout troop group is headed by Kyle Eubanks, Anderson said.

“In reality what we are seeing based on leadership and what we would like to attain in the coming year would be 252,” she added in reference to their target for the first year. “We are looking at 24 boys to one leader and three troops to one skip. So if we attain those numbers that would roughly be 252 to about 300.”

Six schools within its district hosted uniform day Monday, while on February 21 schools from all across the country joined the national body for the traditional road march from Scouts headquarters on Camp Road to Kings House – the official residence and office of the Governor General – on Hope Road.

The St Catherine body returned to its district before signing off its week of activities last Friday with a camp fire at Old Harbour Bay Primary School.

On our visit to the camp fire we recorded a head count of 34 boys, some adorned in the national colours as it was Jamaica Day. Anderson was busy drilling home the message on the essence of being a scout, while the boys listened attentively.

Dominic Newell says he has been a scout for three years. Many of his friends are still not interested in becoming a scout, but he’s taking note of the life lessons being taught.

“We learn about manners and respect and it teach us more about how to take care of our parents if they’re sick,” Newell, a student at Monsignor Colin Bryan Prep, told Old Harbour News.

Newell’s schoolmate Rashawn Simpson added “everything is nice about it because we can go camping and enjoy ourselves and live together as one family”.

Despite only 50 boys on its registry, Anderson was quick to point out that “a lot more” boys are involved except they are not registered.

There are an estimated 10,000 students enrolled within its district and with an approximate 50 percent being boys, many would argue that Anderson’s target of 500 in the next two years is far from ambitious.

But there is a bigger challenge that the association she leads cannot ignore.

“The real challenge we are having is leaders, adult leaders to step up to the plate and steer these boys where we want them, that is our biggest challenge and that is why we are lacking in numbers so much,” the district commissioner said.

“We really don’t have dedicated leaders like 20, 30 years ago. Most of the leaders now are in it because their schools require them to be there, but they are not very committed.

“There are a few committed ones that I must commend, but that is our real challenge here in western St Catherine and frankly throughout Jamaica.

“We are on a mission to try and source some dedicated leaders that we can train and put out there in the schools to start the troops and the packs.”

The community group, headed by Eubanks, now meets on Saturdays at the Monsignor Colin Bryan Prep School.

From this group she hopes a lot more of the “boys between the ages of 13 and 16” from in and around the Old Harbour community will begin participating.

Started in 1907, the scout movement is a globally recognized organization that seeks to inculcate leadership skills and self-discipline in young people by supporting their spiritual, mental and physical development.