12th Tulla Scouts invested into national movement

The 12th Clare Tulla Scouts group were invested at a special ceremony in East Clare last Sunday.
The group of 26 beavers and 30 cubs, along with their 14 scout leaders, were invested into the Scouting Ireland organisation at St Joseph’s Secondary School hall last weekend.

Speaking about how the scouting movement has come to Tulla, group leader Judy McCormack said it was originally her brainchild and is delighted so many have rowed in behind her.

“Tulla is a big GAA and music community so when we were looking to set up Scouts, a lot of adults were interested in setting it up for children who weren’t into sports or music. I guess it started with me. I was walking with my son and some of his friends and we were walking somewhere and saw some rubbish and we said, let’s pick it up. I just said if we were in the Scouts we would be able to get a badge for tidying up and doing this. It was one of those things that I said we should do. I went to Sharon and Micky Donnellan, who are Beaver leaders, about it and they said let’s do it. So they became our little team and then we added people as we went along. We held an open meeting and now there are 14 leaders and we have four parents on our sub-group parents’ committee,” she said.

Judy grew up in the US and explained how her time as a girl scout was something she found extremely beneficial and something she wanted her own children to experience. “It’s just the principles of being active and being active in nature, the sense of community responsibility and taking care of each another. We all agreed that was what we wanted to instil in the children and for them to be conscious of the environment. I think what the Scouts are looking at now is about character and personal development, the physical development, intellectual development, social and emotional development and love of the environment and what parent wouldn’t want that for their child,” Judy continued.

Sunday’s event is the official start of the Beaver and Cubs Scout journey. They each received a symbolic neckerchief and something that holds their neckerchief called a woggle at the ceremony to welcome them into the Scout family.

Currently, the Tulla group has Beaver Scouts under section leader Micky Donnellan, which caters for children between six and eight and Cubs under section leader Deirdre Duff, who are aged between nine and 11. Judy said it is hoped that next year, if more leaders are in a position to come on board, that it can develop a Scouts group, for those aged 11 to 13.

Scouts are encouraged to develop a sense of civic mindedness through activities and endeavours and receive badges to recognise this under different categories.

The children will work towards those badges and in the next few weeks will be setting out challenges for themselves. While in general Scouts work in groups to achieve their badges, there are also opportunities to earn badges for personal challenges in areas such as community and environment.

The Scouts meet at St Mochulla’s School, Wednesday and Thursday evenings and while they are at capacity currently with members, they are encouraging adults to get involved as leaders. 

Judy explained that if more adult leaders come on board, they will be able to accommodate more Scouts and would be better positioned to roll out an 11 to 13-year-old Scouts group.

Anyone interested in getting involved is asked to contact Judy on 087 9392376.