Mandela Day - 18 July 2014
Post date: Jul 25, 2014 9:18:52 AM
On Friday 18th July 2014, our Assistant pack Scouter, Anne Nicholson and 4 Cubs; Rowan Kerr, Kyle Laxton and Gabriel Rowe set aside 67 minutes of their time to give back to others.
The message behind Mandela Day is simple – each individual has the ability and the responsibility to change the world for the better.
If each one of us heeded the call to simply do good every day, we would be living Nelson Mandela’s legacy and helping to build a country of our dreams.
Some time back our Cub Pack collected a box full of teddies and soft toys, and Anne found a good place to hand them out. Anne who regularly helps out as a volunteer at Home-Start, heard about a soup and blanket handout that the organisation was holding on Mandela Day. Anne thought this would be a good opportunity for some of our Cubs to get involved. Anne set about rounding up some willing Cubs to hand out the teddies and soft toys.
Anne thought that there would be lots of children at the soup kitchen, which was held in the park on Mowbray Avenue, Western Extension, but as it turned out there were only three children there.
Because there were so few children, Anne thought they would be bringing all the teddies back again, but to their surprise the adults stopped to speak to them and some wanted a teddy to take home. The Cubs decided it is not good enough that they just hand out teddies to every adult that walked past, so they asked if they had children of their own or niece or nephews they can give to.
The Cubs enjoyed being able to give something to another person to bring a smile to their face. Even though there were not many children for the Cubs to give a teddy to and put a smile on their face, they gave the teddys to the adults and put a smile on an adult's face.
At the end of the day all they had was an empty box, smiles on their faces and content in their hearts, knowing that they had done a good deed.
So by virtue of this simple act, Anne and our Cubs, Rowan, Kyle and Gabriel have lived up to Nelson Mandela's legacy to simply do good and in doing so help to build a country of our dreams.
Congratulations on taking 67 minutes of your time to make a difference.