Meet our Wonderful Pack Scouter Lisa Storey - AKA Akela

For those of you who attend the weekly Pack Meetings, you may be familiar with our wonderful Pack Scouter, Lisa Storey. Super-organized and efficient, Lisa heads the pack like a true Akela and it is more than evident that the Cub Pack adore her! Here's a bit of background, in Lisa's own words, on how she became a part of the 1st Muizenberg Sea Scout Group.

"I married into a Scouting tradition – my husband Richard was a Scout and a Scouter until his early 20’s and then got back into it again when we married and moved back to Lakeside & had our first child.

Richard's Troop Scouter, when he was a teenager, was his mentor his whole life. Richard always said that he learnt more about leadership in Scouts than he did from any management course he went on later in life.

Both my boys were Cubs and are still in the movement, one as a Scout and the other about to move up from Cubs to Scouts.

I resisted joining as it was a lot of hard work and our family was busy most of the time with weekend events, scout camps or competitions, fundraising, etc. I was working full time as well and was happy to support my husband in his role as Troop Scouter, and later as Group Scouter as well.

When I changed to a half day job, I suddenly had more time on my hands. The current Pack Scouter left unexpectedly in late 2012 and Richard started running the Cub Pack as well as the Scout Troop. There were only 8 Cubs at that stage.

We desperately tried to find someone to take over the Pack and eventually in April 2013, I realised that person was me. I did my training and was invested as Pack Scouter in June 2013.

I was a lone Scouter for over a year which was tough. Richard helped at every meeting and we built the Pack up to over 20 Cubs just from word of mouth from the Cub families. I finally found some moms & dads who were keen to go into uniform with me and we started being able to share the responsibilities of planning programmes and organising activities. The Assistant Pack scouters have changed over the years but I now have 2 dedicated parents and hope to recruit some more soon!

Working full time again for the past 2 years has been hard as a lot of my spare time is taken with Cub admin and planning programmes, but I am confident that we will continue to recruit enthusiastic adults who share our belief that investing time in Scouting and Cubbing is essential to build good citizens and well-rounded adults with the right values."

Thank you Lisa, your service is invaluable and the Pack is truly fortunate to have you as their leader!