Jeff delivers a good deed
When a good deed was needed, former Oban scout group leader Jeff Anderson was prepared to do his best.
Although Jeff retired from scouting two years ago, he was happy to come back and help organise the delivery of 2,000 Christmas cards across Oban, raising more than £1,000 to repair the ageing scout hall behind St Columba’s Cathedral.
Money made from the 2021 Scout Post will be used to urgently fix leaks in the wooden hall that was built in 2000 on the same site as the original scout hall that dated back to the 1930s when the scouting organisation bought it for ‘pennies’ from the McDougall Estate, said Mr Anderson who joined the movement as a cub in 1957, the same year as scouting’s 50th anniversary.
The former technical technician who worked at Oban High School and lives in Pulpit Hill, has been awarded his 30 years length of service certificate to scouting in Argyll.
From being a cub with the 1st Argyll (Lorn) Scout Group, Mr Anderson worked his way up through the ranks to being an assistant scout leader, before taking a 20-year break from it all.
It was a colleague at Oban High School who hooked him back in to helping out with the scouts.
‘He asked me to help out as a favour and that was it, I ended up staying and evolved into eventually becoming the group scout leader,’ said Mr Anderson, whose wife Maggie has also been awarded a certificate for 25 years of service to scouting.
One of the biggest changes seen in his scouting career was in 1970 when girls were allowed to join up.
Badge challenges have also changed with the times, he said: ‘There wasn’t one for computing or social media in my day as a scout because it didn’t exist. The first badge I got was for cycling.’
Mr Anderson still keeps in touch with some of the friends he made through the worldwide family of scouts.
Over the years he has linked up with scouts from all over Europe and further afield, coming to stay in Oban - many using the scout hall for summer camps.
Two of the Belgian scout leaders he first met more than 20 years ago are now a Mr and Mrs and bring their own children over to visit.
As for coming out of retirement again, Mr Anderson said: ‘They know where I am if they need me!’ And he added: ‘It’s good to see young people having fun, just as I did all those years ago.’
‘It’s good to see young people having fun, just as I did all those years ago.’