By: Sheldon Leung
When I arrived at my first Social Night in November of last year I was quite nervous and I had no clue who anyone was. Luckily, I was immediately welcomed by several members of the 180th Pacific Coast Scout Group. Everyone seemed interested in meeting me, and the environment felt safe for me to open up and to make friends with all these new strangers. They asked me a lot of questions. For instance, they asked me what I did, where I wanted to study, and what I wanted to do in the future. What caught my attention from this Social was the fact that even though everyone was so different, they all seemed to get along really well. I later realized that the members of the Rover Scout Group were really close; they were like one big happy family.
Throughout the night, the guests mingled with our members, and they learned about the opportunities in our Scout Group from many different perspectives. For example, Karen Tse told us about her December snowshoeing expedition, led by Scouter John Wong. We were also told about how each person in the group had their own Personal Development Plan (PDP), and how they were all given designated mentors from within the group. I’m sure that many of the guests liked the idea of a guiding hand in case they had difficulties with their PDP, or if they had procrastination issues. Scouter John Chow mentioned how life is divided into thirds: the first third is about absorbing, the second third about making money for the family, and the last third is about giving back. I reflected on my own life and how close I was to the second and third parts. It’s a good thing that I have the 180th Pacific Coast Scout Group to help me get on the right path because to this day I am still unsure.
Although I have only been in Scouting for about a month, I believe that this group is a good fit for me. I
am glad we hosted this Social Night as it allowed my friends to experience a few of the great things I had been doing for the past month. By the end of the night, many of the guests were filling out application forms and we were excited to add them to our team.