CARING SCOUT LEAPS TO SUCCESS
Twelve-year-old Tayla Street, a member of 1st Hilton Scouts, was recently awarded her Leaping Wolf by the Chief Scout of South Africa, Khonzaphi Mdaka.
The ceremony, which had been postponed due to Covid-19, was held on June 16 in Durban.
The Leaping Wolf is the highest accolade a Cub can receive and involves a range of tasks, including community participation and personal growth. Each task is recorded in a handwritten logbook and it takes about six months to complete the badge.
As part of her Leaping Wolf project, Tayla focused on the need for early childhood development for school readiness.
She spent Saturday mornings with young residents at a local children’s home and used her own occupational therapy exercise programmes to design a programme that would be fun for pre-schoolers to do.
Her aim was to develop their core muscle strength and also help strengthen and improve their fine motor skills to help with activities like writing and cutting with scissors.
“The little children absolutely loved crawling through tunnels and decorating their biscuits and cupcakes,” Tayla said.
She also remembers how they loved story time when she read some of her library books to help improve their English vocabulary.
During lockdown, many children were unable to go to family and the home was running low on supplies. The Cubs group at 1st Hilton donated baby formula, nappies, and toiletries. Tayla is continuing with her work with the children when she joins members of the Hope Trust in Sweetwaters once a week.
For more information on Scouting in Hilton, contact Simon Ackermann at 072 694 8805.