More scouts in Swift Current means more fun at rally races
Members of the Swift Current Group 2 Scouts enjoyed a morning of racing at their annual rally with hand-made vehicles.
There was a large number of entries for their Scout Truck, Kub Kar and Beaver Buggy Rally at the Swift Current Mall, April 6.
Bobbi Dawn Legere, the committee chair for the Swift Current Group 2 Scouts, was pleased with the outcome.
“I’m so excited to see so many people turn out and our group just keeps getting bigger,” she said. “Word is definitely getting out there and the parents are sticking around. There was a lot of cheering today, which was amazing. I’m just really happy with how it’s all working out this year.”
There were 34 participants at this year’s event that were split over three age groups. The Beaver Scouts (ages 5-7) competed with Beaver Buggies, the Kub Scouts (ages 8-10) brought their Kub Kars and the Scouts (ages 1114) had their Scout Trucks.
There was a lot of preparation ahead of the rally day. They had an opportunity to create and build their vehicles in the wood workshop of a local business, Professional Upholstery & Carpet Cleaning.
“They put a lot of elbow grease into it,” she said. “Most of them start out as just a plain block of wood. They have to cut it themselves and sand them and paint them and come up with ideas on what they want to do with them.”
Their efforts were tested at the rally, where they accumulated points based on their performance in categories for distance travelled, stopping on the spot, straight line and speed track. Participants and audience members also voted to determine the best-looking vehicle.
There was some additional significance to this year’s rally, because participants were able to qualify to compete at an upcoming rally near Regina.
“We’ve never participated before,” she said. ““It’s like our regionals. So the top three Cubs and the top two Scouts will be going at the end of the month and participating in that.”
This meant the preparation for the Swift Current Group 2 Scouts rally required some additional attention to detail to comply with standardized design criteria of vehicles that will allow participation in the regional rally.
“We had to really watch the heights and the widths and the weights especially, but it’s been a lot more fair for all of the kids,” she said. “So we’ll keep the rules going even if we don’t go to Regina next year. We didn’t really pay much attention to things like weight or whatever, but this year everybody was almost exactly the same weight.”
The Swift Current Group 2 Scouts experienced significant growth in recent years and there is currently 12 Beaver Scouts, 14 Kub Scouts and eight Scouts. This is a noticeable difference from several years ago, when the group only had a total of seven participants.
“It’s an amazing growth,” Legere said. “I think people just didn’t realize that Scouts is still there.”
It has taken a lot of ongoing effort to create more awareness in the community about the presence of the Group 2 Scouts in Swift Current.
“I hand out cards to strangers in the mall,” she said. “We are on Facebook and I will be more than happy to help them out or give them the information or whatever they need.”
The members of the troop participate in a variety of activities during the year. They went to Regina for a winter camp in February, where activities included indoor zip lining and a laser tag game experience. They will go to Cypress Hills Interprovincial Park for their summer camp and there will also be regular camping, canoeing, a water slide camp and other activities.
Fundraising is necessary to fund the various activities and their annual online auction will be happening soon. Watch their Facebook page for details.
Below are the results of the Scout Truck, Kub Kar and Beaver Buggy Rally.
Best looking vehicle – Alex Caughie; Beaver Buggies – 1st Adam Baker, 2nd Owen Dwyer, 3rd Karliah Pirlot; Kub Kar – 1st Hudson Caswell, 2nd Jeremy Perrault, 3rd Zander Giesbrecht; Scout Truck – 1st Nathan Dugan, 2nd Layton Diemert, 3rd Mack Henderson.
For more information about the Swift Current Group 2 Scouts, go to their Facebook page, call 306-750-2344 or send an e-mail to group2scouts@gmail. com