Representatives of National Scout Organization of Bulgaria will visit on 9, 10 and 11 March the Youth Centre - Gabrovo and the Gabrovo youth. On 9 and 10 March they will visit Gabrovo high schools and secondary schools and will tell about their activities, and on 11 March (Saturday) at 11 am, in the Garden with the Bear, they will make demonstrations and will launch the Gabrovo Youth Scout Troop.
What is it like to be a scout?
The activities of the scouts are mainly in nature and aim to achieve understanding of the young person with nature and others. Scouts learn how to survive in nature in different weather conditions, how to camp, engage in activities related to ecology, sports, but also charity and volunteering for the community. Scouts are divided into teams - patrols. In them they learn cooperation, leadership, cohesion, mutual help, independence, responsibility for themselves and for others.
We invite all young people 14 to 19 years of agewho want to know more about scouting, to meet the scouts on Saturday - 11 March, at 11:00, in the Bear Garden. We will set up tents, you will have the opportunity to participate in various workshops - types of knots, rope work, first aid, orienteering.
In case of bad weather, although the scouts are fearless, we will take shelter in the more comfortable and dry space in the lobby of the Renaissance Hall!
And some more about scouting and scouts in Bulgaria:
The founder of the Scout Movement, Lord Robert Baden-Powell was born in London, UK in 1857. After a distinguished career with many distinctions in the British Army, he retired from service in 1910.
In the summer of 1907, he organized a camp on Brownsie Island with twenty-two young men where, through informal training, he encouraged the youth toward a spirit of adventure, teamwork, and personal development. This was also the first Scout camp, the boys were divided into patrols with leaders and carried out various activities - swimming, tracking, hiking, games.
In 1908, Lord Robert Baiden-Powell published the book Scouting for Boys, which contained his ideas put into practice at camp the previous year. The original idea was to set up a youth organisation to promote these ideas of nurturing the 'Scout character'. Over the following years the idea grew, all over England boys began to organise patrols; the book was translated into 5 languages and Scouting appeared in countries such as Chile, the US and Canada.
Today Scouts number over 28 million, young and old, male and female, in over 216 countries. Scouts are people from all walks of life.
Scouting was the largest youth movement in Bulgaria in the 20th century.
It entered the country after 1911, but there is no precise record of who was the first centre of Scouting ideas. It is believed that it was either Varna or Sofia. However, the outbreak of the First World War prevented its spread.
In 1921, just a year after the first World Scout Jamboree in London, the Organization of Bulgarian Youth Scouts (OBYR) was founded. In 1923 a camp-school was organized in Sofia, where 186 girls and boys from all over the country participated. A year later the Bulgarian Scouts were recognized as members of the World Scout Organization.
Over 2000 participants took part in the First National Camp Meeting in 1925, held in the Borisovaya Garden, which remains a permanent bivouac for the Scout tents. Some of the parades held on Sundays through the streets of Sofia were personally led by Tsar Boris III.
The greatest manifestation of the Bulgarian scouts in the twenties was their decisive participation in helping those in distress, as a result of the earthquake in Chirpan in 1928. Several dozen groups from Stara Zagora, Plovdiv, Sofia, Pernik, etc. take care of the affected population by building six tent camps and two field kitchens. For two months, they take care of the wounded, participate in the reconstruction of settlements, etc.
At the beginning of the 1930s, the UBMR numbered over 60,000 people in almost all localities of Bulgaria. Bulgarian Scouts also participated in a number of international events - the Second International Jamboree in London in 1929, the Third International Congress in Birmingham, the Fourth International Congress in Vienna in 1931.
After the establishment of the Communist Party in power after 1944, a 1946 law banned all non-political youth organizations. The UYO also came under its blows. The organization of Bulgarian Scouts was restored in 1990 with the entry of democratic processes in Bulgaria. The National Scout Organization of Bulgaria is the successor of the closed Organization of Bulgarian Youth Scouts. It was re-established under the name Organization of the Scout Movement in Bulgaria and adopted its present name at the beginning of the 21st century.
