The Lighthouse -- May/June 1997 The Lighthouse -- May/June 1997After considering bids from P.E.I., Nova Scotia, and Newfoundland, Cabot Park in P.E.I. was selected.
Prince Edward Island has previously hosted two national jamborees, one at Cabot Park in 1977 with 17,000 participants and another in 1989 at Fort Amherst/Port-La-Joye National Park with 11,000 participants.
This year, 160 Whitby District youth and leaders will attend, about 30% of the participants from the eight districts that make up Lakeridge Region.
Whitby will have an official contingent badge for CJ, based on our new district badge. There will be five for each participant and District President Dave will have the extras (6 for $5). Call 668-4123. The badges are promised for July 4.
The new district badge is in production and will soon be available. While the current district badge is still valid in perpetuity, members may change to the new badge at any time they prefer, or just continue with the present one.
The winners of the design contest were Rover A.J. Welsh and Venturers Jan Flanders, whose designs were combined to make the new design. The current badge was designed by a Cub about 30 years ago and has not changed during that time. While there is strong sentiment from many that the lighthouse symbol be retained, the design has been enhanced with two additions that indicate Scouting more strongly. There is light coming from the lighthouse in the five section colours of brown, yellow, green, blue, and red and a Scout fleur-de-lis has been added beside the lighthouse.
Badges will not be available from Samac Scout Shop before the jamboree. This will allow preference for Whitby badge traders at CJ. The price directly from the district has been established at 90 cents each, including taxes. Badges will be available at the bus taking Scouts to the CJ flight or Dave (668-4123) will have them available starting July 4.
A further contest, to design a badge for the new region is expected to be announced later. It would be a good idea to start working on your design now, as there may not be much time when the contest is announced.
The Eastern White Pine (Pinus strobus) is our provincial arboreal emblem (in other words, the official tree of Ontario). It typically grows to heights of 30 m (80 to 100 feet) and is the tallest coniferous tree in eastern North America. In the early days of European settlement in this region, white pines as tall as 200 or 250 feet were reported.
The white pine, with its tall, straight trunk, was very important in the early development of this area. In the early days, the pines trunks were shipped to Europe in one piece for use as ship's masts. In our area, this was an important product leading to the development of Whitby harbour. After the forests of the south became depleted, the building of the Whitby, Port Perry and Lindsay railway allowed for the shipping of trees from farther north, and aided greatly in the prosperity of Brooklin, Manchester, and Port Perry.
The white pine, famous for its often wind-swept appearance, continues to play a role in the local economy through the many Christmas tree farms throughout the area around the Great Pine Ridge.
Registration Kits are now available from district registrar Viola Tebble, as soon as you've handed in your group's annual report. Plan to hand back your completed registrations to Viola by September 30 in order to get them processed in time.
Congratulations to Whitby are in order as we achieved a 5% increase in our registration numbers for this year, compared to 1995-96. The region as a whole was down 1%.
In other regional news, the recent district conference was a great success with 233 paid participants having fun while learning new things. The conference even made a small profit, which will be divided among the districts after the Chief Scout's Awards bills are all paid in the fall.
The Quebec Council is collecting old berets for shipment to Scouts in Africa. A similar project will likely happen in this area.
The new Adult Volunteer Member Screening process has been approved by the national council. The screening process includes
national standards for the approval of adult volunteers ranging from an application form and interviews through to reference checks and police records checks.
Initially all new applicants will be screened. Existing adult volunteers are required to provide police records check by September 1, 1998.
More information will be available over the summer. See page 12 of the October 1996 issue of the Canadian Leader for the previous information on this.