Parents praise Sheffield scout group for helping to keep young members entertained in lockdown

Like most community groups across the country, the 105th Sheffield High Green Scout Group was forced to close face-to-face meetings for the majority of 2020.

However, the Beaver Cub and Scout Leaders at High Green all rose to the challenge of holding Zoom meetings with their members, even though many of the leaders are key workers and continue to balance homeschooling and the day-to-day challenges of living with Covid 19.

High Green Scout Group chairperson, Rowena Morrisey said: “It’s been a real challenge because first of all, our hut still has ongoing costs, so that has been a struggle. Fortunately, we actually own our hut, so we’ve been able to have some help.

“To be honest, the main thing is that the parents have been very supportive, and the majority have continued to pay subs for their children, even though they are not physically meeting.

“The leaders have just been amazing. Quite a few of them are care workers, teachers and childcare assistants, they’ve all delivered online zoom sessions to our different groups.”

Despite lockdown impacting the group's physical meetings, they have still managed to enjoy a range of activities on their zoom sessions including, baking and crafts - whilst also pursuing some of their badges.

Rowena added: “I think there is a lot of children whose parents haven’t wanted to send them to school and weren’t able to go to school, so they were not able to meet their friends in a safe environment. I think the fact that they were able to meet in a group with other friends that they are familiar with and interact with was really important for their mental health. We’ve had some fantastic feedback from some of the parents.”

Now, as a thank you to volunteers across the country, the Scouts Association has launched a new campaign called #ThankTwo which aims to celebrate people who have made an impact across the community in the past year.

It could include leaders, groups, volunteers or just local community heroes that have gone above and beyond to help others.

The idea is to a poster in the window to attract the attention of residents out on their daily walks so that they can take a moment to celebrate the volunteers who inspire young people and teach them skills for life.

Speaking about the campaign, Rowena said: “This year following on from the rainbow posters that everybody had in their windows to thank the NHS, they’ve come up with the idea of doing a post and putting it in the window to thank two leaders or members of the community who have been really supportive to them through the lockdown or the pandemic. They can download templates to draw things, so that’s quite a nice little thing that they can do at the moment.

The scout association as a whole has been very supportive throughout all of this.

In the coming months, the High Green scout group hopes to meet face-to-face in line with the traffic light system set out by the Scout Association, but for now, sessions will continue via zoom.

For more information, visit www.105highgreen.co.uk/

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