At the launch of the scouts’ camp at Rox­bor­ough Sec­ondary School, Chief Sec­re­tary Far­ley Au­gus­tine took the time to speak di­rect­ly to the boys, urg­ing them to stay fo­cused, avoid crime, and seize the op­por­tu­ni­ties scout­ing pro­vides.

Au­gus­tine, in his fea­ture ad­dress at the launch of the Scout­sTT Camp Ar­gyle 2024 open­ing cer­e­mo­ny yes­ter­day, spoke of the trans­for­ma­tive pow­er of a camp ex­pe­ri­ence.

He said that a week in camp was worth six months of in-class learn­ing. 

He re­mind­ed the boys specif­i­cal­ly of the con­se­quences of get­ting in­volved in crim­i­nal ac­tiv­i­ties. 

He said that while the temp­ta­tion might be strong, the long-term im­pacts were detri­men­tal.

“You ex­ist in a broad­er com­mu­ni­ty now that is rid­dled with crim­i­nal ac­tiv­i­ty and we are see­ing younger and younger men falling prey to crim­i­nal ac­tiv­i­ty. You have an op­por­tu­ni­ty to be dif­fer­ent young men.

He urged both boys and girls to take all the im­por­tant val­ues they could learn to be­come bet­ter cit­i­zens.

Au­gus­tine said he ad­mired the trans­for­ma­tive pow­er of the camp ex­pe­ri­ence.

“A week in camp is worth six months of the­o­ret­i­cal teach­ing in the class­room,” he said.

He em­pha­sised that the ex­pe­ri­ences at camp—mo­ments of fun, frus­tra­tion, com­mu­ni­ty, and prob­lem-solv­ing—sur­passed what could be learned in a tra­di­tion­al class­room set­ting.

“In just this camp, you will have mo­ments that will re­quire you to solve prob­lems, ex­pe­ri­ence frus­tra­tion, and miss your fam­i­ly. These are life skills you may not oth­er­wise re­ceive,” he said.

He al­so en­cour­aged the scouts to ap­pre­ci­ate na­ture, point­ing out that be­ing blind to its beau­ty was miss­ing out on half of life’s plea­sures.

Re­flect­ing on sim­pler times, Far­ley re­called, “On my way here, I saw a group do­ing archery near Dwight Yorke Sta­di­um. It re­mind­ed me of a time when we weren’t hooked on screens and de­vices. Here at camp, you have the op­por­tu­ni­ty to put away your tech­no­log­i­cal de­vices and con­nect with na­ture, your col­leagues, and your­self.”

Be­yond the out­door ad­ven­tures, Far­ley spoke of the camp’s role in teach­ing es­sen­tial life skills and moral val­ues.

“We teach you how to be gen­tle­men, to do your best, to ful­fil your du­ty to God, coun­try, and oth­ers, and to de­vel­op a moral com­pass,” he ex­plained.

Au­gus­tine end­ed his ad­dress with a mes­sage to the boys and girls.

“The world is yours to con­quer. You may be a lit­tle boy/girl here to­day, but who knows where you will end up in 10 or 15 years? The world is wide open for the tak­ing.”