USA trip for another local Scout

Ruapehu Bulletin, Volume 12, Issue 538, 31 May 1994, Page 10

USA trip for another local Scout

"Join Scouts to see the world" seems to be the saying in the Hays household in Ohakune. Last year Grant, Laureen, John and Brian worked for three months in a scout camp in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Georgia, USA. Now Warwick, 18,who is having a yea' s break from his studies after gaining proxime accessit at Ruapehu College last year, leaves this week for Muskingham V alley, 95 km

northwest of Columbus, Ohio for a nine week stint as an instructor at a Boy Scout summer camp as part of the International Camp Staff programme. He and another New Zealand leader from Napier were selected from 3500 applicants from around the world hoping to fill only 200 vacancies. Warwick, who is orie of Ohakune' s Scout leaders and a holder of the Chief Scout Award and silver

Duke of Edinburgh Award, is being employed firstly as an instructor in campcraft, cooking and wilderness survival and then as a lifesaving instructor. The camp is fairly small, puttingthrough 1000 scouts in a six-week period. Warwick will be extremely busy however as his daily routine is from six in the morning until 1 1 at night. Apart from his normal camp duties, Warwick has been asked to prepare a pres-

entation showing life in New Zealand in general and the Waimarino in particular as part of the "Citizenship in the World" merit badge. He has been trying to anticipate all the 'hairy' questions he will be asked such as how come we don't have snakes, does water really go down the plug hole in the opposite direction in the southern hemisphere, and how do we find north if we can't see the North Star?

Following his time in Ohio Warwick will join up with the eleven local scouts from Ohakune, Raetihi and Karioi in San Francisco for

their International Rendezvous they are attending near Yosemite National Park in August. Fund-raising for that

event has currently slowed somewhat as some major projects have been held up by the weather conditions over the last 3-4 weeks.