Welcome to Scout Scene! Scouts Canada’s National quarterly newsletter. In each edition, we’ll share updates on fundraising, national initiatives and highlight some of the great partnerships that help support Scouting youth across this great country.
More than ever, young people need to be supported and encouraged in their projects. To meet their growing needs, Desjardins Group is supporting no less than 3,000 initiatives this year. Scouts Canada is proud to join this effort, helping to benefit youth and communities across Canada.
At Scouts Canada we know the impact the pandemic has had on youth over the past two years. Missing out on valuable social interactions, making friends and sharing memories. Spending less time outside exploring, discovering and nurturing a love of the great outdoors. And building those important life skills in childhood that carry through to adulthood. It’s imperative that we get youth back on track and with Desjardins’s support this will ensure Scouting youth across Canada will have the support they need now and into the future.
Through this one-year initiative, Scouts Canada will work to cultivate an entrepreneurial spirit among our groups from coast to coast to help support even more local fundraising activities. This will ensure more youth have access to great adventures which is at the heart of Scouting. In addition, this initiative will help youth develop important life skills, including financial literacy and foster an entrepreneurial mind-set, all with the aim of supporting even more Scouting adventures across Canada.
It's important that kids get back to being kids and with Desjardins’s support even more kids can experience the benefits of Scouting.
Working #TogetherForOurYouth, we can make a difference.
Don Gayford has spent most of his career in the agricultural business. Eleven years ago, when he was looking for a new opportunity, he decided to combine his desire for giving back to his community and his experience in agriculture and started a new business that did both: Make It Sow.
Unlike most seed supply companies, Make It Sow has a different business model — it’s a company focused solely on providing a unique fundraising opportunity for schools and organizations across Canada. Sourcing high-quality seeds that offer a high germination rate, Make It Sow offers fundraising packages and programs that not only support the fundraiser, but also help to teach people the benefits of growing their own produce.
As a family owned and operated business in southwestern Ontario, Don knew that Make It Sow would be a perfect fit for Scouts Canada’s new Scouts Seed fundraiser. “As a Scout with the 1st Sheffield Scouts when I was young, Scouting was my niche. From learning to camp to polishing apples for Apple Day, it’s what’s shaped me. Now, almost everything I do comes back to my experience with Scouts,” says Don.
Scouts Canada launched it first Scouts Seeds fundraising campaign in March of 2020. And despite the timing, it proved to be a successful pilot campaign. Last year, during the second year of the campaign, over 327 groups participated raising more than $217,000 in gross revenue, with over $70,000 going directly to the participating groups and an additional $30,000 for the No One Left Behind program.
It’s not only the Scouting groups and customers that benefit from the amazing quality of seeds provided by Make It Sow, but also the environment. In addition to their fundraising packages, and at no extra expense to customers, Make It Sow also plants a tree for every 10 master seeds packages sold. Since launching the Plant-a-Tree program over five years ago, Make It Sow has planted over 15,000 trees in non-harvest forests in northwestern Ontario. It’s a win-win for all.
Scouts Canada’s spring Scouts Seeds campaign is in full swing and you can help support local Scouting groups by purchasing a variety of garden seed kits, including the Gourmet Chef’s Garden seed kit, the Full Season Garden kit and even the Strange and Fun Garden Plot. But don’t wait too long, the campaign wraps up on March 31, so get planting!
Applications for the Scouts Canada Scholarship Program are now open! If you or someone you know are planning to attend a post-secondary institution in the 2022-2023 school year, and are currently an active and registered member of Scouts Canada, our Scholarship Program might be able to financially help you in your endeavors!
We see the Scholarship Program as a stepping-stone toward evolving the lives of today’s youth into the well-rounded, motivated adults of tomorrow. Scholarships are awarded to Scouting youth who have demonstrated outstanding leadership qualities, and a desire to create a better world. Deadline for submission is June 19, 2022. To learn more about scholarships are available — visit the Scouts Canada Scholarship page. Good luck!
As part of our Scouts Canada Inclusion + Reconciliation Journey we have onboarded our Internal and External Reconciliation Advisors, who have graciously offered to guide our organization at the strategic level. The spirit and intent is to co-create a way forward with our Indigenous Reconciliation Steering Committee made up of Scouts Canada members and non-members, and is our first approach to co-creation and seeking guidance from those with expertise and lived experience. We are grateful to welcome as Advisors:
Our Advisors bring a wealth of talent, excellence and lived experience and offer a dynamic set of perspectives including urban, rural, Métis, insights generated from MMIWG (Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women & Girls) efforts, different regions, on-reserve, off-reserve and corporate. We also acknowledge that this group does not necessarily capture the full spectrum of diversity across First Nations, Métis and Inuit perspectives, however we are grateful that they have offered to start this journey with us so we can build a more inclusive future.
As our relationship with our Advisors progress, we simultaneously look to listen and learn through our systemic audit of the organization. If you are a subject matter expert or with lived experiences and want to help co-design the audit by participating in Focus Groups with Coeuraj, please consider signing up here.
Following our first round of seven Listening Sessions with 133 participants to gather positive and critical feedback on our approach to Inclusion and Reconciliation, our Listening Sessions Report will be available on our website in the coming weeks. As we continue in our journey, we plan to conduct future rounds of Listening Sessions to further identify any changing needs and concerns.
We are excited to continue to share our progress and encourage you to keep updated on the different phases of our Reconciliation Journey through our different communication channels. We will continue to update our community along the way and anticipate sharing further reflections of the process in Spring 2022.
We are pleased to announce our new partnership with a great Canadian company: Chilly Moose (Canadian “Cooler” & Drinkware Company). Chilly Moose’s core values and mission include protecting the environment, supporting great outdoor adventures through high quality, long-lasting gear, and giving back to the community - which strongly align with our own Scouting values and mission. As part of our partnership, Chilly Moose will start selling a co-branded tumbler in mid-April, with $10 of each sale going towards our No One Left Behind program. Keep an eye out next month to get a great tumbler to take on your adventure all the while supporting a good cause.
We’re also kicking off a new initiative with Chilly Moose and our Scouts for Sustainability program at the end of April. Chilly Moose is looking forward to supporting our Scouting groups with their environmental efforts and wants to encourage them to take their environmental programming to the next level. In the next few months, your Group could receive some great Chilly Moose prizes simply by organizing some SDGs related activities and sharing your projects with the Scouting community through our Take Action page. Help us show what an important impact Scouting Groups are making across Canada!
Keep an eye out as this could translate into some great prizes for Scouting Groups. More to come at the end of April. In the meantime, check out all the wonderful gear you could be receiving on the Chilly Moose website.
The Claim the Flame Challenge was a country-wide initiative to get kids active outdoors this winter and work towards earning not only the cool Claim the Flame crest, but also key Winter Outdoor Adventure Skills badges. Over 215 groups from across the country took part and participated in everything from learning new outdoor winter sports, to building quinzhees and shelters, outdoor winter cooking, snowy trail hikes and even Klondike Derbies! It was four amazing weeks of winter fun! #ClaimTheFlame
Through generous donations and fundraising initiatives, Scouts Canada is well on its way towards its goal of reaching $1 million dollars for the No One Left Behind (NOLB) program. Ensuring all youth have the opportunity to participate in Scouts by reducing the financial barrier for families is key. Last year over 2,500 youth were directly supported by the NOLB program, but there are still many more youth in need. Consider donating to the NOLB program today!
What if your next cup of coffee could support Scouts in learning new skills, making new friends and becoming better leaders? And what if that coffee was actually, really good coffee?
The Scout Coffee fundraiser allows Scouting Groups to enhance their programming to help develop youth into well-rounded, more resilient individuals.
Purchase Scout Coffee and support your local Scouts.
Creating a legacy gift as part of will planning is a generous and thoughtful way to provide a lasting impact. Your legacy gift could help Scouts Canada create more exciting opportunities and new programs to help youth discover their true potential.
When you partner with Scouts Canada you demonstrate to Canadians, your community and your customers a commitment to youth, families and the future of Canada. Impact over 75K households across Canada, directly connect with over 56K Canadian youth with a proven media reach of over 30 million impressions annually.
Media inquiries, please contact Anissa Stambouli: anissa.stambouli@scouts.ca
Scouts Canada Charity Number: 107761694RR0028