As part of his Creative Badge, Patrol Leader Christopher Logan has written a short essay on what Scouting means for him. He has talked about Scouting Values and how he feels it will help in his future endeavours.
Christopher Logan
I have been doing Scouts for the past 5 years, as of early 2026, so it has been a huge part my life. ln my time Scouting, l have collected many badges, done many activities and met many people. I have made many memories, and I expect I still have a long run left in my Scouting journey. The many things I have learned will help me wherever I go in life and may potentially even help me to protect other people. The Scout values have helped shape me into who I am now and have helped me construct a moral compass, and I also expect they will shape me into whoever l will become in life.
In my opinion, the most significant Scout value to me has been integrity. Integrity will help me wherever I aim to go in life and help me in getting to there. Whether integrity is helping me stay out of trouble to helping me call it out whenever I see something that is wrong, integrity will aid me in those things.
Another Scout value that will be invaluable is cooperation. In whatever profession I end up taking, cooperation will be perhaps one of my most useful skills, as wit it I will be able to receive help a lot quicker, I will be able to give other people help as well, and will be overall pleasant to work with. This value will be especially helpful with the general profession I wish to pursue, engineering, specifically an engineering job at Lego.
Scouting has also taught me various skills, with possibly the most important being fire safety. With the various fire safety skills I have been taught in Scouts, some of them I never would have knew without Scouts, for example, I have learned about the vest ways to escape a house during a fire and how to protect as much of the house as I can. I may be able to help great quantities of people in a dangerous situation, if it is unfortunately needed. Also, with the information I have been given I will be able to pass it on to other people who have not been educated on the topic, helping even more people to stay safe, enabling them to help others and pass information onto even more people.
Scouts has also given me great encouragement to go outside and explore the world surrounding me, with fun activities that have really clicked with mem such as orienteering, launching bottle rockets and doing hikes. Not only have these activities been greatly interesting and fun, but they have also helped me stay healthy and take up new hobbies.
In my time at Scouts, I have managed to become a Patrol Leader, with my Patrol being Cobras. I have had fun managing members that have been in my Patrol and taking charge of my Patrol in the team activities we have done. In the past term of Scouts, we have earned the most points and part of the reward of winning was helping plan the next term of Scouting in which we have chosen various outdoors activities in preparation for the upcoming warmer weather that comes with summer.
In conclusion, Scouts has given me many memories, taught me many things and helped me make new friends, talk with new people and opened the door to new opportunities. I hope to continue Scouting by joining Explorers when I am old enough, possibly even becoming a leader for a whole Scout group one sat, and providing others with the same opportunities I was given.
Scouts started this term helping celebrate our Year of Language by working towards the Gaelg Aboo! badge.
The badge followed a simple syllabus which we could easily apply over our existing activities, games and ceremonies. If we were stuck for something to do, the excellent syllabus prepared by Culture Vannin was there to help.
When getting refreshments, Scouts told us their preferences and used their MSs and GMAs (My sailt – please, Gura mie ayd – thank you). We played bingo but the numbers were only in quick fire Manx. We shopped for items on a Manx shopping list and played games to explore and recognise our emotions.
We were pleased to hear that a lot of the words we learnt were already known by the Scouts and we continue to pepper words in our general conversation. A simple “jeant dy mie” (well done!) goes a long way to support development of the Scouts and reminds us all of our local, living, language.
Although we more than completed the badge, we combined with another special local badge for one of our remaining term meetings by grabbing a chippy supper, of our national dish, Chips, Cheese and Gravy before heading down to the promenade to watch Culture Vannin’s specially curated Drone Show, celebrating our Year of the Language.
The drone show was well attended and really impressive, as shown in the photos. We recognised a number of words and even caught a couple of Scouts having a bit of a dance!
If you are interested in learning our language, whatever your age, have a look at the links below:
Year of Manx celebrating and promoting this year’s programme for Year of our Language.
Learn Manx useful for learners of all levels, full of resources and information about classes.
In one of our planning meetings, where our winning Patrol were represented by their Patrol and Assistant Patrol Leaders. we heard of our Scouts’ desire to introduce Minecraft to our programme.
Alongside our programme, which was designed in part by our winning Patrol, we included Minecraft. Specifically, we explored some things we’d learnt IRL (that’s “in real life” if you’re a n00b 😉 ) for our Fire Safety badge.
We’ve had a number of challenges this term, including:
Building houses to a specific constraint (must have a bed, with restricted building materials, etc.)
Flammability of certain materials and how to slow down fire spread
Race to the finish in a virtual Parkour course
We’ve had lot of fun and we know our Scouts have enjoyed it, sharing their personal achievements with each other and sharing tips and tricks. It has been a great opportunity for Scouts to meet in a different context/world yet still work as a team to build or race.
Scouting has also taught me various skills, with possibly the most important being fire safety. With the various fire safety skills I have been taught in Scouts, some of them I never would have knew without Scouts, for example, I have learned about the vest ways to escape a house during a fire and how to protect as much of the house as I can. I may be able to help great quantities of people in a dangerous situation, if it is unfortunately needed. Also, with the information I have been given I will be able to pass it on to other people who have not been educated on the topic, helping even more people to stay safe, enabling them to help others and pass information onto even more people.
special local badge for one of our remaining term meetings by grabbing a chippy supper, of our national dish, Chips, Cheese and Gravy before heading down to the promenade to watch Culture Vannin’s specially curated Drone Show, celebrating our Year of the Language.
