Mitchelstown Scouts win two in a row
The Dolphin Patrol of the Mitchelstown Scout Troop emerged winners of the North Cork Scout County Shield Challenge Weekend Camp two weekends ago, for the second year in a row after Covid, in mostly pleasant camping conditions. This time young people from all over Cork City and County competed at Cork Showgrounds in teams, building their sites and taking part in challenges.
The five Scout Counties of Cork came together to organise the first All Cork County Shield 2023. Over 400 young people aged between 12 and 15 years of age and 100 scouters from Corcaigh Theas, North Cork, Lee Valley, Cois Lee, and West Cork competed in a scoutcraft competition which is comprised of camping, pioneering, and skills bases to earn places at the national competition which is held in Dublin in August for their own Scout county.
The weekend started with all patrols putting up their campsites, where they would “live in” for the weekend, in as comfortable a manner as their Campcraft Skills dictated. This was followed on the Saturday morning and afternoon with a series of challenging bases designed to ascertain their scouting knowledge in such skills as teamwork, pioneering, backwoods and navigation. There were also fun tasks put in for good measure. With the theme of the weekend being “Back to the Future” the bases were built around the films, with Doc’s Laboratory, the Siege of the Showgrounds, Back to Basics and Time Travel Trouble, testing the Scouting Skills of the 50 patrols present. This was followed on Saturday night by a scout campfire and “Back to the Future” prom night. A jampacked weekend to say the least.
The Final presentations were made on Sunday by the County Commissioner John Fitzgerald after the Chief Scout of Scouting Ireland Jill Pitcher Farrell had spoken to all scouts and scouters present. Qualification for the Phoenix Challenge (the All-Ireland of Scout Craft) was the goal of the weekend along with learning and expanding your Scouting skills among friends both newly made and those you have met at other events.
Some days are more special than others, long after the mundane and everyday have slipped in the memory, these remain crystal clear, at a moment’s recall! No more so true for the Mitchelstown Scout Troop’s Dolphin Patrol as they captured the Cooking Trophy, The Skills Bases Trophy, and the overall County Shield Trophy for their efforts before and on the weekend.