Scouting Thoughts - Are you proud of our troop?

Are you proud of our troop?

If you answered "yes" then
I would ask you a second question
how do you show that pride?

If you answered "no", whose fault is it?
Why aren't you proud of our troop
and have you tried to change what you're not proud of?

Pride is not an "in" word these days
but how else do you express the good feeling you receive
from seeing a group of young people working around at being Scouts?
When you're doing your best to meet the challenges and goals,
you should feel good about achieving them.
That is pride.

When you look sharp;
work well together for everyone's benefit;
are contributing to your community;
co-operating with your Leaders
and taking responsibility for your actions - you have something to be proud of.

Putting all of these accomplishments combined with fun and fellowship into the troop,
has given you tremendous spirit
and spirit is the way we show our pride.

I asked you at the start how you might show your pride - your spirit.
There are many examples.
You wear your uniform in a clean and proper state;
you arrive at meeting and events on time ready to do your part in making them successful;
you encourage others to join;
you continually think of interesting things to do and places to go as a troop;
you work on badges of all kinds;
you show respect for your Leaders at all levels
and you talk about your troop to other people,
telling them how good you've helped make it and the fun you have.

Our troop has spirit when we really want it to be the best
and work towards that goal.
Our troop has spirit when we look at ourselves
and talk freely about the bad things and the parts we don't like
but still stand firmly together.
Our troop has spirit when each of us cares about what it stands for
and do whatever we can each week to make the troop even better.
And our troop has the spirit when we have all of the above and still say "we have just begun".

adapted by Group Scout Leader