‘It truly is another family’
Local Scouts give back, receive highest Rover honours
Two Rover Scouts from Grand Falls-Windsor are making a significant difference. They are earning awards and are positive role models for youth in their community and beyond.
Through Scouting, each section can pursue impressive awards, including the Canadian Rover Award for Rovers – the highest achievement for Rovers. And Zoey Healey and Shanlee Mitchell recently received it.
“It is meant to be personal to the Scout and increases in difficulty to achieve for each section,” 19-year-old Healey says.
According to Scouts Canada, Rover Scouts can pursue awards by completing personal progression within their crew; leading or contributing to projects of personal significance that have an impact in the community and by attaining the specified number of Outdoor Adventure Skills stages. These goals must also follow at least one of the ‘SPICES,’ which stands for a set of youth development goals - social, physical, intellectual, character, emotional and spiritual.
To earn the Canadian
Rover Award, Healey and Mitchell completed multiple rounds of personal progression, each lasting three months, as well as a capstone project which could be completed on their own or as a team.
The duo embraced their first capstone project in January 2020 – donating bras to ‘Free The Girls.’
“Recently learning more about sex trafficking made us realize just how fortunate we are,” Healey says. “Many, including us, didn’t know how prevalent it is, even as close as Nova Scotia.”
After connecting with ‘Free The Girls,’ the duo collected and purchased (through monetary donations) more than 200 bras from January to March last year to be distributed to victims of sex trafficking in El Salvador, Mozambique, Uganda and Costa Rica.
“When Zoey suggested the ‘Free the Girls’ project I was 100 per cent on board with the idea of helping women and giving them the confidence that they can do anything since that’s what Scouting has taught us. We are all equal and we all deserve opportunities,” said Mitchell.
For their final project they held a toy drive at Christmas for Tiny Hands Daycare in Grand Falls-Windsor.
“We felt that for our final project we should focus on a more local approach and we felt that donating toys to a daycare would be perfect,” Healey says.
SCOUTING FAMILY
WOSM (World Organization of the Scout Movement) and WAGGGS (World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts) - whom together were nominated for the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize - are two independent movements but share the same fundamental principles, according to the WOSM website.
Healey has been involved with WOSM/WAGGGS for 12 years, joining Scouts in 2017 after being involved in Girl Guides from 2009 to 2017.
“I first got involved in Scouts because my little brother was a Beaver. I would occasionally stick around meetings and I loved the atmosphere,” Healey says.
She finished Pathfinders and joined Scouting. Her first activity was “surventure,” a four-day camp that was modelled off the show Survivor.
“We were given the bare minimum to survive in Newfoundland weather,” Healey says.
Mitchell has been involved in Scouts since March 2013. She was always involved in different activities including music, dance and skating, however, her dad and younger brother were in Scouts and Mitchell was encouraged to try it.
“When I went to Scouting activities, I felt accepted and safe and I think that is something that made me want to say. It was a place where I can learn about who I was, it was a place where I could try new things without fear because there was always someone right behind me.”
GRAND FALLS-WINDSOR AND BEYOND
Their home group is 4th Grand Falls and while still active with it, they are also involved in adoptive groups while living on the East Coast of Newfoundland and Labrador; Mitchell with the Rover group 1st St. John’s East and Healey volunteering with 1st Paradise Scout Troop.
Healey’s also the youth group commissioner for
4th Grand Falls, a position Mitchell also held as she volunteered as a Scouter in the Beaver, Cub, Scout, and Venture Scout sections of the program and was youth spokesperson for Scouts Canada. Mitchell was also chosen to attend the 2019 World Jamboree as a Scouter.
Both are also on the Canadian Contingent Team for the 2023 Haarlem Jamborette, where they volunteer on a national level for Scouts. They are part of the Haarlem Jamborette Experience (HJX) team in charge of hyping up the youth.
“There’s a jamboree over in the Netherlands that happens every four years and countries from all over the world go,” Mitchell says. “Canada has a ‘team’ we call it, a contingent that is going.”
“There are over 500 Canadians attending the Haarlem Jamborette,” Healey adds.
“As of now we have monthly Zoom meetings with troops from Torbay to Vancouver Island.”
These are just a few examples of the opportunities available through the Scouting movement.
“Scouting itself and our Scouting family have given us so many amazing opportunities and it inspires of everyday to give back to the world in any and every way we can,” Healey says, adding Scouts helped her to earn her bronze, silver, and goals Duke of Edinburg International Awards. “Some people think of Scouts as just another activity, but it is so much more than that. It truly is another family.”
“There are over 500 Canadians attending the Haarlem Jamborette,” Healey adds.
“As of now we have monthly Zoom meetings with troops from Torbay to Vancouver Island.”
These are just a few examples of the opportunities available through the Scouting movement.
“Scouting itself and our Scouting family have given us so many amazing opportunities and it inspires of everyday to give back to the world in any and every way we can,” Healey says, adding Scouts helped her to earn her bronze, silver, and goals Duke of Edinburg International Awards. “Some people think of Scouts as just another activity, but it is so much more than that. It truly is another family.”