Canada is a country with incredible parks and wilderness areas that consistently beckons our Explorers to discover and live a sense of adventure, beauty and Explorer (scouting) skill development in a manner that presents  a sense of challenge, excitement, joy and happiness as we work and at times struggle to accomplish our camp program objectives even during difficult circumstances or times.

This Bike Hike camp weekend to the Elora Gorge Park located some 85 km west of Toronto Ontario offered us a wide range of wilderness and small town experiences that help to transform a simple “bike hike” into an extraordinary experience…

The “bike hike” helped us in many ways…

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Coming up is a great historical play „to these green meadows”, which will be taking place on June 15th in an amphitheater in one of Warsaw’s districts as part of the celebration of the end of the year.

The preparations started two months ago and almost 200 actors are needed. A total of 57 girls and 140 boys from the green and red branches have already volunteered to participate!

The mobilization is very big and the commitment of some is also very strong.

The play covers many important moments in Polish history. Starting with the origin of Poland, the Grunwald battle and the topic of Polish Nobility times and the Polish revival.

The biggest task is to achieve the proper musical frame. The goal is to compose an orchestra made up of our musical scout talents.

The idea is to hold such plays each year for the celebration of the end of the year and to prepare a play about The Saint of the World on the next World Youth Day in 2016, probably in Cracow, in Poland…

The organizers want to create a movie and to take photos.

We await impatiently.

Courage Poland!

With an Hungarian scoutmaster, the scouts of the IIIrd Mountain Chambéry Troop wanted to discover this country. They also wanted to use this opportunity to partner up with a foreign troop. The IXth Warsaw quickly accepted this great opportunity and now each French patrol is in contact with a Polish one in order to get to know each other, to prepare the camp and they even prepared a small Polish-French glossary to have an alternative to English. They will all end up in a camp together in Hungary this summer.

Krzysztof, the head of scouts unit of the IXth Warsaw tells us that his scouts are really motivated since they have heard so much about the European dimension that they wanted to live it. When the French scoutmaster’s mail arrived, as Hungary is not so far away from Poland and does not imply so many expenses, they said : “Why not!” What are they expecting from this camp? To experience a great Adventure, spend some good time with the French scouts in Hungary, and learn from all these different cultures. Thus, it is a good way to prepare for the Eurojam!

As for the French, faced with the challenge of financing this camp, the IIIrd Mountain Chambéry Troop has found an innovative, profitable and well-liked recipe in order to move away from the traditional pastries sale. As they do not lack of ideas, motivation and scout spirit, the troop has concocted a representation where songs performed by the whole troop follow songs by each patrol one after the other using a vigil technique (puppets, choreography, shadow theatre …). The patrol leaders have distributed the tasks: planning the schedule, making sure that each patrol has repeated and learnt all the pieces, making posters and communicating it widely. The first concert was a real success and has attracted a wide variety of people even some new to Scouting.

The story has not ended here since a second concert is looming on June 8th, 2013 in Chambéry, France. https://www.facebook.com/events/430872383676002

By singing a delighted troop gets ready to fully live the European dimension of the movement. Let’s wish both troops a good camp, a good learning of languages and a great meeting!

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From May 9th to 12th, the national pilgrimage of Belarusian rovers took place. They started their walk from the village Soly and went to Gudagai to the Mother of God.

The national pilgrimage gathered rovers from all over the country including such towns as Minsk, Gomel, Grodno, Vitebsk, Borisov, Pastavy, Lyntupy. If one had joined this route, he would really have experienced the European dimension of Scouts of Europe as we were joined by the rovers from the cities of Zolochyv and Lviv (Ukraine). They came together with a deacon. And, perhaps, the most interesting guest was a young man from Sweden, who came to learn our experience in the development of FSE scouting, as his country currently does not have a Scouts of Europe organization.

The main gift was not only great weather for all the days of the pilgrimage, but the opportunity of meeting good people along the way. Many villagers blessed the rovers and were happy to see so many young devout men celebrating their catholic faith. In one of the villages – Zhuprany – rovers taught the children some scout games. By the way one of the most beautiful churches in Belarus is situated in that village, the funds of which were raised by the famous Belarusian poet and democrat Francis Bogushevich who is also buried there. This man also took part in the 1863-1864 Kastys Kalinouski uprising, which was the theme of the camp fire which took place on the same day. After the camp fire, Pavel Belski had his Rover Departure ceremony to become the 5th RS in Belarus.

The pilgrimage ended with a 3-mile Way of the Cross in forests and fields near the village of Gudagai which was a breathtaking spiritual experience.

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