Every year we review Damboree, whether it’s met its goals, the Nights Away landscape before us, and whether we have the funds and the energy to continue.
There have, over time, been a number of changes in the Nights Away Permit Scheme, a change in the top team at Damboree, and our fantastic active support peoples to support our mission locally.
Our original mission was to get Beavers camping, and Beaver Leaders motivated to get a campsite permit to take their Beavers camping. With the announcement that Squirrels can enjoy the full nights away experience, including camping, I think that puts the “Can Beavers camp?” question unequivocally to bed, forever.
We’re grateful to the HQ Squirrels Team for supporting the nights away trials, and giving due consideration to camping in our youngest section.
Are there still issues with the direction of travel for the Nights Away Permit Scheme as a whole? In our considered opinion, yes there are. With the publication of FS120015, which explicitly allows Local Rules to be developed and a seeming hardening by District Commissioners around POR 9.1, Nights Away is going to become problematic in years to come. However, we feel, that’s not our bunfight to carry forward.
So from a Damboree perspective we feel is it very much Job Done.
In the coming days we will be updating our store to enable pre-orders of this years badges. There will only be two badges this year, a participants badge for all sections, and a Gold Badge.
The Gold Badge will have slightly different criteria this year, so look out for those.
We will also be doing special offers on collections for our legacy badges, so look out for those too.
Whilst it should go without saying, we’re hugely grateful and humbled by the support for Damboree since the idea was seeded in late 2017. The impact it has had on young people will ripple for years to come, even allowing for the Covid-19 induced hiatus.
In reality, we fed badge habits, and cheered people from the sides, but it was you, our Beaver Leaders who broke down the barriers to Beavers camping, and for that you should be forever proud of yourselves.
So this year will be a celebration of camping, Damboree-Style, and we look forward to seeing you do it, what Scouts do best…..
Camp and burn stuff.
