What do spatulas, salt and storming have in common?

When you’re in Scouts, apparently it’s a lot! Picture yourself as a 12 year old, volunteering to cook dinner for a group of friends. 

Yes, it’s a bit (or maybe a lot) scary. Perhaps you don’t even know what a spatula is. Perhaps, as that 12 year old, you hate all food of any kind unless it’s a chicken nugget. How are you going to plan a menu of food you might not even like?

This could be a disaster, perhaps the food will burn or be too salty. Maybe my friends will laugh at me. 

Or… it could be amazing, with the help from your friends. Scouting is not about being perfect all the time, we are going to have complete disasters. But when you were 12 do you remember that perfect vacation or do you remember the time when Dad missed the turn and ended up in the (fill in the blank)?

Scouting provides the opportunity to make mistakes in a safe environment when the stakes are low. You are surrounded with others who have made those same mistakes and will support you as you have that moment of (uh-oh). In Scouting, we call that storming. Eventually, it will lead to performing these tasks like you’ve always done them. Then you’ll start all over with another skill.

We as adults do this on a regular basis at work or learning a new skill. Think of a process change at work, it’s chaos at first, then things settle into a rhythm over time. Scouting prepares youth for these moments and helps them recognize what’s going on and not give up when things go wrong. In the meantime, they have the opportunity to learn some lifelong skills like first aid, firebuilding, survival skills, and leadership.

Do you know a boy or a girl ready for adventure? Is he or she ready to explore the world around him or her? Perhaps even learning that camp chili or shish-kabobs are actually pretty amazing over a campfire! Bring them to a Scout meeting. Let them check it out and decide. Scouting is carefully open for business and ready for our spring adventures. Your youth’s adventure awaits!

The Scouting program of Troop 25 offers the opportunity for learning life skills. Meetings are in person on a weekly basis with separate meetings for boys and girls who are 11 or have completed the 5th grade through 17 years old. To learn more about Troop 25, visit www.Troop25Canfield.org or contact Scoutmaster for the boys, Kevin Prus at 330-774-7130 or for the girls Suzanne Heino at 330-261-3127. Meetings take place every Wednesday at 7:00pm at Canfield United Methodist Church, 27 S. Broad St. in Canfield, but message us first to make you get directions to find us if we’re heading out on an adventure! 

Troop 25 is committed to the safety and health of our Scouts, but we recognize the need for kids to be kids and be outside. With the weather turning nicer and our options open up for outdoor recreation, we feel we can safely open our program back up for new Scouts. Should things change, we are ready to reenact our virtual protocols that we’ve been practicing for a year now!