The Stettler Scouts are struggling to continue to offer the program in Stettler due to the lack of desperately-needed volunteers. The organization offered hot dogs and information at this year’s Canada Day celebration in Stettler to raise awareness of their need.
The ideal number of leaders is three per group (Beaver Scouts, Cub Scouts, and Scouts), and right now the organization has one leader for Stettler’s Beaver Scouts. Stettler Scouts would have had older age groups, but the lack of leadership wouldn’t allow it.
“We had some kids that were interested, but we didn’t have the leaders to do it,” said Cathy Dadensky, who is involved with the Stettler Scouts.
In addition to the ideal nine leaders, the organization needs four to six group committee members, who would deal with administrative tasks related to Scouts.
The lack of leadership has been a problem for the last few years, but it wasn’t until four leaders stepped down at the beginning of the 2013 year that the situation became more urgent.
“Kids in Scouts have fun adventures,” Dadensky said. “It’s something that the kids who are not into sports or music can do. It gets them outdoors, active.”
Kids in Scouts have no real limit on what they can learn, and activities include camping, model building, now shoeing, and rock climbing.
“What do they want to do?” said area commissioner Chuck Orlick. “That’s pretty much the limit of it. There are very few things that we can’t do…anything’s fair game, pretty much.”
Prospective leaders have to go through training, background checks, and interviews to make sure they’re safe to be with the kids. Almost all the training can be done for free online. Leaders don’t have to have a child in Scouts or be alumni of Scouts – anyone who wants to work with children can undergo the training.
“It’s lots of fun for adults and kids,” Dadensky said.
“Adults always have a big smile at the end of the year,” Orlick added.