Cory Brown a Scout at heart
Watching youngsters face their fears and providing opportunities for personal growth is what’s kept Cory Brown volunteering for the Scouts movement even when his own children outgrew it.
The New Plymouth hairdresser and C U Hair business owner was recently acknowledged with a New Plymouth Volunteering Award for his years of service.
‘‘I’m very honoured firstly to be nominated from the scouting committee, and then to be accepted by the New Plymouth volunteers group,’’ he said.
‘‘It’s recognition of the work that I’ve done and I’ve told lots of people that it’s actually a lot of people’s award. There’s lots of people that have contributed along the way and are still contributing.’’
Cory’s scouting story began because of his son Caleb, now 19.
‘‘He would have been seven and he went to Westown Cubs. A friend of his took him along and then the following week he pestered me to go. As a protective young parent I went and wanted to make sure it was OK and kept going back.’’
Several years later Cory was still involved.
‘‘That was a lot of fun. Then Scouting Taranaki in formed me that the Fitzroy Group was going to close and would I like to try and restart it? So in the year 2008 we began that journey,’’ he said.
His wife Kylee joined in 2013 and is a leader at Fitzroy too. ‘‘She makes all our scarfs. She runs the Kea and Cub sections,’’ he said.
The couple’s middle son TJ was involved in Scouts from 2008 to 2011. Then the couple’s daughter, Chilee, joined in 2013 as a Kea and has since progressed to Cubs.
‘‘There was a time when I had no children there,’’ Cory said. ‘‘I was running two sections and had no children involved for a two-year period.
‘‘I think that stood out to the group, how committed I was to volunteering for them.’’
Cory is now the Fitzroy Group leader often running more than one section on a night or different nights of the week.
He said seeing the small successes in others keeps him going.
He particularly enjoyed seeing people start out afraid or reluctant, and watch them overcome their fear.
‘‘That’s when it’s really good,’’ he said.