Many Sections/Groups in South East Scotland had planned to go camping over the Easter Holiday period but had to change their plans due to the COVID-19 situation. So, to ensure our young people and adults/leaders got the opportunity to camp we created the South East Scotland Sleep Out.
Between Saturday 11th and Sunday 19th April, Beavers, Cubs, Scouts, Explorers, Network and adults (parents/carers and adult volunteers) were encouraged to join in the fun and take up the #SESSleepOut challenge by sleeping outdoors, if they had a garden or indoors, in a den or shelter.
During the #SESSleepOut a number of challenges were set for participants to undertake including:
- Taking a photo of their favourite Easter Egg in their camp
- Recording their favourite camp-fire song
- Undertaking the Necker flipping challenge
- Taking a photo of their camp blanket
- Designing a Virtual Badge to depict the #SESSleepOut
- Learning a new knot and use it in an interesting way around your house
- Telling us what their favourite camp experience has been to date
- Walking at least 1907 steps on their daily walk wearing your necker
Participants were asked to share their photos and videos on our social media sites with the hashtag #SESSleepOut. Over 700 pictures and videos were received on the following sites and on District social media sites as well.
Facebook: South East Scotland Scouts Twitter: @sesscouts Instagram: @ses_scouts
The event ended with a “Big Last Night #SESSleepOut” when over 800 young people and adults/leaders across the Region took part in a mass Sleep Out on the Saturday evening, including the Regional Commissioner, members of the REC, DCs and most importantly many young people across all Sections and Districts. Over the course of the week, we estimate a total of 2,000 “nights-away” have been achieved and each young person who took part has received a Certificate and we are also looking at producing a #SESSleepOut badge.
The SleepOut has been featured in the Edinburgh Evening News, the Third Force News and on STV News. We also received some great feedback from parents – a few are provided below:
“Thanks for organising this SES Scouts – it’s been a blast”
“Thank you for all the fun tasks over this lockdown period. My son loved doing this one and has actually still slept in his box out of his bed this week by choice.”
“Thank you very much for organising this event, it gave my children a new focus during these extremely difficult circumstances”
“Many thanks for the certificate and indeed for all the efforts in organising the sleep out event. Much appreciated”
“Many thanks for all the hard work and effort to make this happen for the scouts. Great idea and helped make holidays fun!”
“A big thanks to the Regional team for organising and coordinating it all – you all deserve a badge!!”
Margery Naylor, Regional Commissioner for South East Scotland Scouts said
“The Sleep Out was a great opportunity to give our young people and leaders some much needed fun. The Sleep Out helped with reducing social isolation and loneliness because of the tremendous number of posts on social media. Young people across our Region could see others doing the same things and having a real adventure. It’s important for us as Scouts to help young people get through tough times. We want to ‘Keep on Scouting’ at this time and that’s just what we are doing.’
Mike Treanor
Scouting Support Officer
michael.treanor@sesscouts.org.uk