Scouting in general
Scouting is a worldwide youth development organisation for boys and girls up to the age of 18. Most Scouting events are organised by the Scouts themselves, or by adult leaders, called Troop Scouters. These events include camping, hiking, community service, water skiing, and other exciting activities.
Scouting teaches many skills such as leadership, time-management and organisational skills, social skills, how to be part of a team, first aid, survival, cooking, and many other useful human and practical skills. No matter what trying conditions are faced, a Scout will know how to take care of himself or herself. Scouts develop strength, confidence, and good judgement.
An example of how a typical activity might be run is as follows: scouts will go to camp for a weekend. The Patrol Leader of each group will delegate jobs to each scout in order for the campsite to be build, along with campsite gadgets. They might then go for a swim or play a game. The next day they might build a bridge across a small stream out of wooden poles and ropes. The scouts will go for a short hike in the afternoon. And so on...
Typically Scouts meet every Friday evening, and do their hiking and camping activities on weekends. Friday night meetings usually consist of games, learning skills, and doing team-building and skill-building activities. The weekend activities also include competitions, where different groups compete against each other in different activities.
During your scouting career, you will advance through five levels until you become a Springbok Scout. The Springbok Top Award is the highest achievement a scout can hope for, and helps greatly with bursary applications at universities, and job applications in the workplace.
For more information on scouting, visit the "links" page, which will show you the way to the South African Scout Association, and to the World Scout Organisation. Alternatively, visit the "contact us" page to contact us directly for more information.
Our Scout Troop
1st Durbanville Scout Group Started during 1954 with a Pack of Cubs who met in a garage. The Troop started off shortly after in the same year. The entire Group was officially registered as a Scout Group on 22nd April 1955.
We currently have grounds on De Villiers Drive, Durbanville. It is a nice area with trees, a small field, and an obstacle course.
Our troop was one of the first Scout troops to introduce girls into the troop, since Scouting was traditionally "Boy Scouts". We now have almost as many girls as boys. We have six patrols consisting of about six scouts each. There are two girl patrols, and four boy patrols.
1st Durbanville is the best Scout Troup in the Cape Western Area, if not the whole of South Africa. The proof is in the number of competitions we win (see the achievements page), and the number of Springbok Scouts we have produced. We have a great group of adult Scouters, who are always keen to set up the best program for the scouts, all year round.
The thing that makes 1st Durbanville unique, is the way we always manage to find the most fun way of doing everything. So our scouts have the most fun, even on the toughest competitions.
Our future plans include revamping our Scout hall and grounds, and winning even more competitions.
You may be interested in reading an article about how 1st Durbanville got started.