From: jim.speirs@canrem.com (Jim Speirs) To: dannys@iis.ee.ethz.ch (Danny Schwendener) Subject: Try It This Summer Article #R84. ===== Try It This Summer David Goss The Leader, June/July 1984 June, not January is the right time for resolutions in the Scouting organization. As we wind up another year, it makes sense to look back so that we can see what we've accomplished and plan ahead to make next year even better. With that thought in mind, I gave the Duffle Bag a good shake to come up with some program ideas you may not have considered. Perhaps, over the less hectic summer period, you'll find time to carry out the research necessary to bring these ideas to fruition for your boys. Of course, Scouters don't want to spend all their summer hours with noses in books, so I chose project ideas with a practical angle. I figure, as long as you have fun doing something, you're more likely to work it into your program. Gold Panning Is there an area near your headquarters where prospectors once panned for gold? If so, traces of gold likely remain in the stream. Learn how to pan the sands and try to find some small bits of the precious metal. In the fall, take your boys panning, too. They will have to find the area by secret maps, codes and symbols, of course. While there, they might also have to locate the food they need to make their lunch - beans to cook, bread to bake, etc. Bird Watching The average Scouter likely recognizes robins, jays, crows, turkeys, pigeons and perhaps a half dozen other birds. Over the summer, take time to learn to recognize a few more birds in your area. If you work at picking up just a few each summer, in a few short years you'll know so many birds by sight and sound, you'll be able to add a whole new dimension to your outings. Wildflowers As you do with birds, try to learn to identify wildflowers. They are easier to learn because at least they stay in one place. Pick and press a few and make up a display panel. Pick the flowers on dry days. A professional flower press is nice, but you can press them simply by placing them first between sheets of white paper and then between newspaper. Lay heavy books on the package and leave for a week to 10 days. To keep them looking good on display, place the flowers behind glass. In the fall, your boys can repeat your experience. Asters, goldenrod and pearly everlasting make particularly good drying specimens. Leaf Collection Every pack and troop should make and display a collection of leaves along with samples of tree bark so that boys can learn first hand the best trees for making cookfires. City troops and packs can learn what trees are best for city streets because of their disease and smog resistance. You can design a pleasant fall activity around gathering, drying and pressing the colourful leaves of many types of trees. After they are dry, the boys can lay leaves on sheets of dark construction paper and work out interesting patterns. Or they can combine leaves with sticks, stones, cones, burrs, seeds, acorns, pods and husks to make fall collages. You'll find many ideas in books at your library. Metal Detector Arrange to use one of these supersensitive electronic gadgets over the summer. In the fall, get together with four fellows who will volunteer to head up search patrols on a deserted beach. Hide suitable "finds" in the sand ahead of time. Archery Most communities include a few keen archers who will be willing to share their skill. Archery, of course, requires considerable care and is definitely an older boy activity. But, think of other things that "shoot". Consider the local police firing ranges, the driving range at a golf course, ball-pitching machines and bowling alleys. How can you work some of these resources into programs for fall and winter 1984/85? Unusual Foods What food is your area famous for? For generations along the Fundy coast of New Brunswick, Saint Johners have picked dulse, an edible seaweed that clings to the rocks at low tide. After drying it on sun-warmed rocks for almost a day, they eat it raw or slightly cooked. Maritime children snack on it like Torontonians do on potato chips, but we found many boys in our group had never picked it. We also found they had never jigged the spring run of gaspereau, picked fiddleheads, dug clams, drunk farmer's fresh milk, caught winter smelt through the ice or tapped maple trees. We set out to try harvesting and eating as many of these foods as we could and, over the years, managed to introduce boys to all of them. Every area of Canada presents some similar possibilities and now is the time to try them yourself so that you can work them into your program in the future. The Guitar If there is one thing I'd recommend to every beginning Scouter, it is to take a few lessons on the guitar. I'm a three-chord strummer myself, but those three chords have enabled me to make enthusiastic singers of hundreds of boys who might not otherwise have learned a Scout song. Get a guitar this summer. Take a few lessons or buy an instruction book and learn the chords D, G, A7; or C, F, G7; or G, C, D; or A, D, E7. Did you notice the repetition? That's the secret and the beauty of the guitar. Once you've mastered one sequence, you already know one third of the next, which comes in mighty handy. Some songs, like Down in the Valley or The Grand Old Duke of York require only two chords. Once you have your boys singing, you'll be smitten for life and you'll never again run an outing without a sing song. Skits In an earlier piece I did for this magazine, I put to paper a dozen of my favourite skits. Some of you didn't agree with my choices. Some even wrote to say I should be drummed out of the movement! It's with some trepidation that I mention the subject again but I'm taking the chance because Scouting surely needs some new skits. This summer, be on the lookout for suitable material. You may find it in books or magazines, on TV, in the movies or at the office or plant. At summer's end, put together a few skits to try next season. Then, follow up and send your material to me through the editor. I am perfectly willing to commit another group of skits to paper so that none of us who have spent some time in the movement will ever again have to endure Suckers on the Line. And I'll do it even at the peril of losing my membership in this great movement, because I believe it will be the finest contribution I can make to Scouting in Canada today. Have a few chuckles while you're sipping your lemonade in the shade, and let us know what you find funny this summer. Oldies but Goodies When was the last time you tried some of these old ideas? - Fire by friction: did you ever get it to work? - A study of the stars: not since your high school days? - A swap, talk and brag night: just be sure you have a better story than the ones your boys will tell, or think about importing a storyteller. - Tape recorder hike: combine the Top 10 with instructions that lead your boys to the radio station from which their favourite music ema- nates. Arrange a tour. - Animal track casts: it's surprising that, when they see his tracks in the snow, few boys know which way the rabbit was running. What do you mean, they don't even know that the tracks are rabbit tracks? - Weekly home specials: prepare a series of cards with Scouting tips or projects boys learn or do between meetings; e.g. press a neckerchief, sew on a button, make up an emergency kit. - Knot board: how long has it been since every boy in your pack or troop could tie three basic knots; the reef, clove hitch and bowline? Make it your aim for '85. Review your books over the summer and come up with other things you can try: troop calls; troop banner; troop displays; troop games and equipment box; troop cooking kit. The list goes on. By now, I hope you're abuzz with a headful of ideas. But don't just think about them. Summer in Canada doesn't last long and you'll be back at it very soon. You don't want to arrive empty-handed. Duffle Bag will be back in October with a whole series of ideas for special days you might never have considered celebrating: Left-- handers' Day; Houdini's Birthday; Three Kings Day; and a dozen others you can fit into your program plans. Have a nice summer.