The sixth Scout law reads that 'a Scout is a friend to animals' but we'll let local Scout Melanie Welgemoed off the hook for not wanting to be buddies with the wild bear cub she encountered at an American camp recently.
The sixth Scout law reads that 'a Scout is a friend to animals' but we'll let local Scout Melanie Welgemoed off the hook for not wanting to be buddies with the wild bear cub she encountered at an American camp recently.
“The bear cub walked straight up to me, I just froze!” she said. “Eventually it wandered off when it realised I wasn't very interesting.” But Welgemoed had a host of other interesting encounters during her six-week stay at Camp Tri-Mount in the Catskills mountains in the State of New York.
She was there from 25 June to 4 August this year. This USA Boy Scout camp is busy all year round and Welgemoed, a Springbok Scout, applied to work at the camp last year in July. She only found out that her application was successful in May this year and had a month to pack and get ready for the adventure. “I've always dreamt of representing the South African Scout Association at an international level,” she said.
“I've also always wanted to travel and see New York, but I didn't expect both dreams to come true at the same time!” Welgemoed was the only international staff member at this years Camp Tri-Mount Summer Camp and was also informed that she was the first South African woman that they'd ever hosted. “I had weekly lessons where I taught them about South Africa and got to share the South African Scout training I'd had. They also taught me new skills in exchange,” Welgemoed said.
Explaining that she had been taught how to play volleyball, and naturally she showed the American boys how to play rugby. And being surrounded by hundreds of boys for six weeks wasn't a problem for Welgemoed because, “I was the only girl in my Scout troupe for a long time, so dealing with the 460 boys at the camp wasn't too bad”. Activities like ziplining, rock climbing, white water rafting, pioneering, rifle shooting and outdoor cooking were just some of the activities Welgemoed facilitated.
“One of the best was 'Mud Valley' where we designed an obstacle course for the young Scouts to do. If they weren't muddy enough by the end, then they had to do it again!” If that wasn't enough excitement, in her first week at the camp she even had first-hand experience with a tornado. “We had to board up the windows in the dining hall and move all the Scouts inside,” she said.
“If anything the whole experience brought us together closer as a team. We had great fun waiting out the winds!” By the end of the camp she'd made such a good impression that she was asked to return next year. Welgemoed's experience at Camp Tri-Mount was made possible by help from a lot of people along the way, she said. S
he is grateful to the South African Scout Association, the Guide companies of Grahamstown, her Scout Company in Durban (the 58 Durban Air Scouts), her family and sponsor as well as her District Commissioners. “I'm extremely thankful for the friends I made and the fun I had, it was a once-in-a-lifetime experience and I encourage all Scouts to apply for it as well.”
Welgemoed is currently in her third year at Rhodes University but originally hails from Durban.
