How we celebrated our founder's birthday

Feb 26, 2007 - Gord Welling

The chance to celebrate a centennial anniversary and a 150th birthday happens only once in a lifetime, so we gathered all our youth, parent volunteers, leaders and special guests for a great meal!

The gathering

Approximately 50 youth and 30 adults (parents, leaders and special guests) gathered at the Officer's Mess at Canadian Forces Base Edmonton on Sunday evening, February 25th, 2007, where we honoured our founder Lord Baden-Powell and celebrated 100 years of Scouting.

Starting at 5:00 pm, we met in the lounge where our out-going Group Commissioner Edie Hesson orchestrated songs, skits and cheers from our two Beaver colonies, our Cub Pack and Scout Troop.

One of the more enjoyable skits was put on by our Wednesday Beaver colony who performed "water ... water ... water" which was rewarded with an appropriate cheer from another Section.

This got everyone in the "Scouting" mood prior to moving into the dining room to start our dinner meal and the rest of the festivities.

Flag parade

After all the skits were completed, we invited the parents and guests to move to dining room while we organized our flag bearers and arranged everyone in a correct order of march. Led by our flag bearers, our Scouts, Cubs and two Beaver colonies paraded from the lower lounge up to the dining room.

Our flag bearers mounted our flags and banners in the stands and we all participated in the invocation for the meal and then took our seats.

Master of Ceremonies

Edie has many great talents ... she can get control of a large group of youth in the blink of an eye with almost no effort.

With 30 years in Scouting, she also tells wonderful stories about our past. It was a real treat and pleasure when she agreed to take on the role of "MC" for us. She entertained us and made all of our parents and special guests feel "at home" as we celebrated Scouting traditions.

The meal

You can't have a fun dinner without a fine meal. The Officer's Mess staff went all out to prepare a roast beef dinner with all the fixings (or chicken fingers for the kids who couldn't recognize roast beef).

Our thanks go to the cooks and servers who prepared a woderfully tasty meal.

Special Presentations

After most everyone had finished eating, Edie introduced the head table guests which included past Area Commissioner and past 2nd St. Albert Group Commissioner Chris Casey, Council field executive Ken Lausen, incoming Group Commissioner Greg Cowan and his wife Shelley who also serves as our Treasurer, and representing our new Group sponsor Les Rogers.

Once introductions were completed, Special gifts were presented to special guests representing those organizations that have supported us throughout the years including the Schools where we meet and companies that provide storage and material support. We then invited up the beavers to blow out the birthday cake.

Edie then presented two "Woodbadge One" woggles to our incoming Group Commissioner, Greg Cowan for completing the Core and Section specific training for Beavers, Cubs, Scouts and Venturers in one year.

Woggles were also presented to other leaders who had completed Woodbadge One training throughout the year. Congratulations go to Jon Taylor and Jennifer Smith (Wed Beavers), Jerry Veldhuis (Tues Beavers), and Gerhard Beckmann and Curtis Aikens (Mon Cubs). Pins and congratulations also go to Gord Welling, Curtis Aikens and Marie Gauvin for completing Group Committee training.

Speeches and closing

After hearing delightful stories from some of our guest speakers, Edie had all of us gather in the back of the room in a large circle. She introduced Les Rogers and asked Greg Cowan to present him with a Group Sponsor charter certificate. Les presented the leaders of each colony, pack and troop with sponsor badges, a gift from our new co-sponsor, the St. Albert Breakfast Optimists.

No gathering of youth and leaders would be complete without a proper closing. We all sang "O Canada" and then closed with a rendition of "Ging Gang Gooley".

After closing, many gathered around our historical display set up by Greg and Shelley Cowan, to chat and socialize and pass along personal thanks for a great evening.

Was it worth it?

With a fun evening completed, we can all look back and ask "Was it worth it?" ... you bet!

This will be a B-P dinner that will be remembered for a long time. It goes to show what a little planning and a focus on "having fun" can produce. I lost count of the number of times that I overheard "Can we do this again next year" ...

About the author

Gord Welling (Rusty) is our Group Administrator and has been an active Scouter with Wednesday Night Beavers for the past four years. This will be Rusty's last year with Beavers and he plans to move to Monday night Cubs next year.

Related Stories

• Saying Farewell - Thanking an energetic leader - Feb 27, 2007
• Being Optimistic - Introducing a new Group sponsor - Feb 26, 2007
• New Group Appointments - Area Commissioner announces new appointments - Jan 22, 2007