Pembrokeshire Scouts held their first ever Virtual Area Camp on the weekend of 18-19 July 2020 and what a brilliant weekend camp it turned out to be.
Linda Wilson, Area Commissioner had this to say about the camp “What an amazing weekend! It was wonderful to see so many members taking part in the wide variety of activities available and the Challenges have certainly stretched me as well as some of the other leaders! Thank you to everyone who arranged the activities, produced the videos and joined in with the weekend. Well done to the brave people who camped out or cooked in the rain – I was very glad the weather was better on Sunday! I look forward to sending out 100’s of badges to celebrate our wonderful achievements!”
The programme included a range of activities, from well being boxes to chocolate brownie oranges, origami cranes to virtual drumming. The wet weather on the Saturday didn’t dampen the spirits of the many young people (and adults) that took part over the 2 days.
Ethan, Emily, Eben and Eli Sky who are members of Pembrokeshire Scouts gave a brilliant account of how the weekend panned out for them “Another Area Camp has come to an end but this one has a more of a reason to be memorable – it was our first Virtual Camp which left us with many fond memories. This experience has been a pleasant one and so problem free as our great leaders had lived by our Scout motto and were prepared.
We had all hoped for a little sunshine when we got up on the morning of our Area Virtual Camp, rather than the rain that fell persistently upon the roof of our ageing gazebo. But hey! this is Wales after all. We had chosen our favourite activities to do for the day but to be honest, all the activities were great and we ended up accomplishing them all over the course of the weekend. All we had to do was to get the necessary items together for each activity and have a good time doing it. All the activities were enjoyable.
Our Mum and Dad, who are both leaders, said “Virtual Camp is great – there’s less to pack away and when you turn off the computer, you are already home!”
Making para-cord bracelets was great fun, and after we all made at least one each, we all thought they looked pretty cool. We also loved cooking twists on our campfire – a few attempts proved to be a little soggy in places as it was raining but by the second and third attempts, all tasted pretty good, smothered in chocolate spread always seems to make things taste even better. Chocolate Orange Brownies went down a treat also. After lunch on the Saturday, we made some great bug-hotels, using lots of recycled materials from our garden and our dads toolshed. “Can’t wait for the little bugs to move in!” we all thought. We even made a fleur-de-lis in the rain using wet leaves from our garden. All videos that were made which were part of the timed activities for the weekend were all very informative and sometimes proved to give us all a little giggle. They were that little extra encouragement to anyone who wished to follow along.
Kindness rocks, Well-being boxes and paper cranes followed allowing us to reflect on more spiritual and wellbeing matters. During these activities it gave us time to talk about certain matters pertaining to the activity in hand. Making dens is always great fun, and either inside or out they can be a nice way to spend time together, both in the making of them and later by chilling out inside them. We also enjoyed the drumming session. It was loud, energetic and interacting and we had such a great laugh. Thankfully we do not have any neighbours close by to complain about the noise. Singing campfire songs together as an Area was a memorable moment of the weekend for us all, one of which will remain with each of us for a long time to come.
We absolutely loved camp – we had a feeling of fun, skill-building and ease and we can’t thank our leaders enough for all the hard work that was put into everything, from the activities to the videoed helps, from the live zoom meetings to the encouragement of posts on Facebook…..we are sure everyone who participated also had a memorable weekend. And now we look forward to many more virtual activities and memory making moments.”



