Sid Vale scouts meet online for St George’s Day celebration

Technology has enabled the 1st Sid Vale Scout Group to celebrate St George’s Day despite the coronavirus lockdown.

Around 40 families attended a Zoom video session on Thursday, April 23, including beavers, cubs, scouts, explorers and leaders, to renew their scout promise.

Assistant group scout leader Ian Fletcher said the founder of the scouting movement, Lord Baden-Powell, chose St George as the patron saint of scouting because the story of St George tells of him overcoming adversity.

He said: “It is quite appropriate that we have managed to celebrate our patron saint, as, like St George, we have overcome the difficulty of not being able to follow our usual face to face celebrations by using technology to come to together as a group.”

Although the scouts cannot meet up in groups, their leaders have been setting them outdoor challenges such as campfire cooking, scavenger hunts and building robots.

Mr Fletcher said: “It’s important that we put on a range of different challenges for the young people to make them feel a continued connection with the scout group.”