A traditional scouting group based out of Baker Creek is looking for more members.
Sara McManus is a group scout master with the Baker Creek BPSA Scouting Group. She said the group has been able to thrive during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“It’s been really, really awesome actually,” she said “We managed to go camping last summer with all of our kids, we were able to start up our group.”
McManus said the group had to struggle through losing access to their usual meeting spaces.
“We lost access to the schools, that was a big hit to us,” she said. “Which made us re-think how our group was going to run. We had a big fundamental shift in September. We decided to meet during the day on Saturdays, every third Saturday.”
McManus said they eventually they managed to find a temporary home at the Elks Hall, and parents and kids loved the new schedule.
“We continued through the rest of the winter, and all of our kids followed the COVID guidelines,” she said. “We all wear masks all the time, sanitize, and do all of the right things.”
With summer coming, the Baker Creek BPSA is planning on moving back to their traditional roots, and are looking for places host their usual scouting activities during a day camp format.
“We’re moving to outdoors, which is a big switch for us, because the weather is nicer,” McManus said. “We’re used to camping eight times a year with the younger kids every second month all year long, and we haven’t camped with them since August.”
Stricter public health orders may have left a gap to allow the group to go camping, but the BPSA held off to follow the spirit of the rules.
“Once the order went in people shouldn’t be going to other people’s houses, we said ‘okay, we’re not camping, it’s too much,’” she said. “Even though there’s not a direct order stopping us… We don’t want to skirt around it. We are going to wait until things lighten up a bit.”
The Baker Creek BPSA is offering a spring trial to interested people, and are hoping to resume camping later this year.
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