The Cub Scout movement of Trinidad and Tobago, along with other cub scouts worldwide, celebrated 100 years of existence on April 9. One such celebration took place at the Women of the Soil headquarters in Palo Seco where 35 scouts and their leaders camped out earlier this month. Cub scout leader Phillip Gardener said: "We came to camp here years ago. We contacted Ena after seeing her in a newspaper article and since we are about knowing your country the District Commissioner suggested here or Mayaro."
The 35 scouts departed Palo Seco on April 13 after having a grand campfire the night before they left."
Gardener said the district of Diego Martin is also celebrating 40 years, so it was like a double celebration."
Mahalia Khan, assistant cub scout leader from Crystal Stream, stated that a lot of activities were planned for the five days, including: rope work; disaster preparedness; first aid; a lecture on the history of scouting; safety; hiking to the mud volcano; sing along and art and craft. They would also be learning the art of backwoodsman cooking which is cooking without utensils. Also accompanying the scouts were: Angela Celestain, district commissioner of Diego Martin; Annette Vidale, assistant district commissioner for expansion at Crystal Stream; Wendell Waldrop, assistant cub scout leader; and Sherwin White, cub scout leader of Diamond Vale.
The Beginning of Scouting
Scouting's history goes back to the turn of the 20th century to a British Army officer, Robert Stephenson Smyth Baden-Powell. While stationed in India, he discovered that his men did not know basic first aid or the elementary means of survival in the outdoors. Baden-Powell realised he needed to teach his men many frontier skills, so he wrote a small handbook called Aids to Scouting, which emphasised resourcefulness, adaptability, and the qualities of leadership, that frontier conditions demanded. The Scout Association of Trinidad and Tobago is the national Scouting organisation of Trinidad and Tobago. Scouting was founded in Trinidad and Tobago in 1911 at Queen's Royal College and became a member of the World Organisation of the Scout Movement in 1963. The association has 4,176 members (as of 2010). T&T's Chief Scout is President George Maxwell Richards.