“We found slugs,” a six-year-old Scout gleefully said describing the best part of Beveree 2019.
It was the Smithers Scouts turn to host the event for the Beavers of the Skeena area this past weekend. Twenty-four five- to seven-year-olds from Terrace, Kitimat, Smithers and Hazelton set up camp at Thyee Lake Provincial Campground.
Group commissioner for First Smithers Scouts Group Jennifer Rosenburg said the idea was to have fun and give the kids information on the outdoors.
“We are showing them what lives in the lakes that we can’t see with the naked eye, what we don’t see just walking on trails and how important those things are. And just being outside and not sitting inside.”
This was one of the last events of the season for the scouts, rounding out a successful year for the club said Rosenburg. This year the club grew. Three years ago when the scouts started up again in Smithers, there were only eight kids but now they have six leaders and 23 kids. However, Rosenburg said the challenge is getting enough leaders to volunteer.
“We need one leader for every eight scouts. And we need more to pull off events like this, it takes a lot of people, for safety reasons,” she said.
This past season the scouts snowshoed, built outdoor ovens, went camping, shot rockets, took a cooking class, raced little cars, learned lashing skills and also gave back to the community by volunteering at the Legion, picking up garbage and they made kits for the homeless.
While the season is normally wrapping up now, the scouts get a chance to host a group from England later this summer.
“They are coming here to raft on the Babine River, and they wanted some fill-in time so they contacted us when they found out we had a group here and asked if we’d do something with them,” Rosenburg said. “Anne [Heatherington from the BV Naturalists] is going to hike us up to Crater Lake because there are four ecosystems up there and when you are from England you don’t get to see what we have here. When they get to the top, they will be blown away.”
