Scouts ‘rough it’ in aid of charity
Scouts from Farsley Troop, along with over 100 other Scouts and Explorer Scouts from West Leeds District spend a night in cardboard boxes - and raised funds for St George’s Crypt by doing so.
Whilst ‘den’ designs differed, the participants were unanimous in their goal - to experience what it might be like to ‘sleep rough’ and to raise funds to help those who find themselves homeless.
Scouts arrived on Saturday at 4pm and started to build their ‘accommodation’.
About an hour later, they were introduced to Chris, a member of St George’s Crypt management, who gave a PowerPoint talk about what his organisation’s history and what it does today. This was followed by Scouts asking a multitude of questions, which showed just how engaged they were with it.
After that, it was time for tea (baked potatoes and filling plus swissroll and custard), before heading back to their dens to finish them off, in readiness for sleeping out that night.
To make the event as realistic as possible, no games etc were arranged so Scouts had to entertain themselves until bedtime, many sitting around a campfire and singing - in true Scouting style!.
Damp weather visited overnight - but it didn’t stop the sleepover!
They awoke to Bacon Butties and a drink on Sunday morning, disposed of their cardboard and went home.
A bit tired? Maybe. A lot satisfied with what they’d achieved? Definitely!
Graham -Group Scout Leader
Unlike many scout groups, our group was told not to bring much luggage as if we were really homeless we wouldn't have any big bags of stuff.We all had different ideas for the boxes but everyone mainly went for the tobelorone shape. Ellie and Mathew went tobelorone and so did Oscar and Adam. Jay and Luke went tobelorone and Martin went shape but not fully tobelorone. As, Me Jamsine and Katie all wanted to go in the same box we had to go cuboid. the only problem with ours was the fact that in the morning it had puddles on the top.
I really enjoyed the cardboard box camp as it gave me a feel to be homeless. the campfire was amazing but we werent allowed to go to it in the morning as it was to big. In the morning we played capture the flag. The whole camp was really fun and I would happliy do it again.
Hannah Gaunt -Hobby Patrol Leader
