Happy 100 Years of Scouting today! Well yesterday, August 1st.
In our BSA council they've been advertising today as World-Wide Do a Good Turn Day. There is a group of scoutss that camped on Brownsea Island that as the sun rose this morning, renewed their committment to scouting and did a good turn.
Being the good scout that I AM, I rounded up the two cub scouts that live in my house (Adam and Sammy), and my three little girl cub scout wanna-be's (Melanie, Carolyn, and of course Erin) to go do a good turn. But I cannot stop there, as it is born within me to want to help other people have great scouting experiences as well. I called Adam's friend (Jason) and Sammy's friend (Cody) to see if they wanted to come along. Jason did, Cody didn't, but Cody's sister, Elizabeth, who is Adam's age, did want to. I knew it would be a bit of a challenge to keep everyone together and 'friendly,' but with promised rewards I knew we could do it.
We wanted to go clean up along a path near our neighborhood that I've heard is pretty trash-filled. It used to be a train track, but it hasn't been used as such for years so last year the city paved a nice walking/bike path with dirt along each side. We set out with lots of bags and water. Not very far into it, we realized some other good turners had been along not necessarily today but at some point previous to us, as there really wasn't that much to be found. Still, there were things here and there and it was a nice walk. Sammy even found an old railroad spike.
The kids kept telling me there were swampy areas ahead with lots of junk in them, and when we made it to them, yah, lots of pop cans and water bottles tossed in. The other good turners must have seen the swampyness as a challenge, but not us! We found some big sticks and went fishing. At least the swamps weren't too big - at the widest point maybe 4 feet wide, and a foot deep tops and overgrown with trees and bushes around. For quite a while the swamp runs along both sides of the path, with the path raised above it about a foot. Carolyn found a little toy frog at one point she wanted to toss in the trash, but I told her it was okay to leave it since some little kid probably left it there as a friend for the frogs that live there. As she was replacing it I heard a soft kind of, "Uh...!" I didn't turn at first, until my brain registered a half-panickyishness (did you know I like to make up words?) to it. I was surprised to see Melanie's bike tire laying down and sticking out of part of the swamp and overgrowth - can't see Melanie, and no more noises. I quickly got over to it, and could see that somehow Melanie had driven off the path and her bike took her right down into the slime. She still wasn't saying anything, but was struggling on top of the bike to get up and out of the mess. Thank goodness she was okay, but pretty covered in mud and other yummy stuff. I am still amazed that there were no tears involved.
After rounding up Adam and Jason, who had of course chosen right then to ride way ahead of us all, I got all the good turners turned back around for an immediate trek home and a big clean up.
So there's our Scouting Commemoration Adventure. Yes, I took pictures after we got home.
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