A little pick me up

Every leader has their ups and downs. And at some point or another we all need a little pick me up. I'm not talking about a cake and a good cuppa type pick me up.

Not this type of pick me up...

I'm talking about the pick me up that only the scouts can provide. They may not intend to provide it... heck they might not even realise that they have done it, but I've generally found that when you need one, then they will deliver.



This summer I was in dire need of a pick me up.


Things had been getting on top of me, I was getting mega-stressed with everything and if I am honest I wasn't exactly a happy bunny. I stayed clear of here for a while (if you hadn't noticed) as I didn't want to be all negative. That's also why I'm not going to go into any details.

from here

But not to worry, my pick me up worked and I'm happy again! (woo hoo)


The nature of the pick me up, well, it's rather unusual as it actually involves something that we scout leaders dread, medical care. And no, before you say anything, I did not go round doing Timmy Mallet impressions and hitting the kids with an oversized mallet to relieve my stress.


Let me set the scene. At the World Scout Jamboree in Sweden one of the set activities was Dream, a night time activity in the forest based round self discovery. Our subcamp had this scheduled straight after the Opening Ceremony, so after the party at the main arena we had to fight the crowd back to our site to get changed and then make our way to the queue for the activity. Needless to say we were all shattered.


In fact we weren't the only ones that were shattered. A girl from another UK unit fainted near us while we were in the queue for the queue. One of her leaders dutifully stayed with her, but the rest of her unit carried on and went into the queue for the activity. My unit on the other hand, instantly, and without being asked, formed a human shield round them and started doing crowd control.


It was shortly after that, that one of our own keeled over. Well, the newly formed Protection League went into over drive. Passing water among themselves to make sure that everyone was okay, protecting the casualties from being walked over and clearing the road for the ambulance to get in.


At one point there was actually three people under our protection, altho the third wasn't there for that long... so I presume that he recovered quickly and went on to enjoy the activity.


I know, I know, it sounds like a complete disaster. Obviously it wasn't the situation that was the pick me up... that would just be a bit too sadistic even for me, it was the way they reacted. They truly went above and beyond the call of duty that night and I was immensely proud to be able to call myself one of their leaders.


Now, I'm not trying to brag, I've done a number of things that are rather pride worthy. I've got my Queen Scout Award, Duke of Edinburgh Gold, Explorer Belt and Wood Badge all before I was 25. All of which were presented to me at various times, and don't get me wrong, I was very proud at all of them. But all of them pale in comparison to how proud I was of my unit that night.


That night, not only did they protect their fellow scouts, but they restored my faith in being a scout leader.


Note: The scout from my unit that fainted recovered rather quickly as was fine. We also received a thank you message the next day from the girl from the other unit that fainted saying that she was fine.