Getting together for an evening of fishing
Planning a day for fishing in July can be challenging. That said… Planning ANYTHING this year has been challenging. Regardless, our simple evening of fishing turned out to be a big success.
A year of challenge
To say that this year has been challenging would be a colossal understatement. We haven’t been able to meet together as a troop since March. Our planned activities were all canceled. Even our annual Summer Camp trip was canceled! We’ve been doing our best to occasionally meet “virtually” online, but it’s just not the same.
Of course, everyone is facing challenges right now. We’re just thankful that all of our Scouts and their families have remained safe and healthy during these interesting times.
Getting creative
The Scouting program is centered around activities that the Scouts do together. Leadership and teamwork are key aspects of the program. That makes it challenging for the Scouts to continue to learn and progress (and most of all, have FUN) while completely isolated from the other Scouts in our troop.
Rather than just sit back and do nothing, we’re using this opportunity to get created. We’re exploring different ways in which the Scouts can still have fun experiences all while keeping themselves and their families safe.
Fishing – The perfect first step
We often plan a number of simple fishing events throughout the year. It seemed only natural then that we would plan one for our first event since the social distancing began in March.
This ended up being a perfect first step in a positive direction. The event was obviously outdoors, and there was plenty of room for the Scouts to spread out around the lake, practicing their social distancing.
As a bonus, the weather was great (unlike our last fishing attempt), and the guys caught a number of fish!
Moving on…
One thing we have going for us is the fact that nearly all Scouting activities are normally held outdoors. Instead of trying to figure out how to hold events in small, confined, indoor spaces, we at least have a little more flexibility given that we’re outside most of the time.
We still have lots of challenges to overcome. However, situations like this are a great way to motivate us to continue to think outside the box and come up with new ways to keep the program going.
