Upton Shield for Moms - 101 basics of Scouting competitions and team work.

Upton Shield is a prestigious Western Cape junior hiking competition for Scouts. Every year the coveted trophy becomes more elusive as the size of the competition grows. This year 69 teams of 4 scouts participated.

The most notable consideration for me this year was that the competition took place on Mother's Day.

1st Muizenberg Upton Shield moms impressed me this year, and I am so encouraged about the future success of our troop based on what I am going to describe.

Let me start by creating a backdrop to my story,

Your junior Scout has been in Scouts for a few months and comes home to declare that they are chosen to participate in a competition! At this stage, you dear mom, are unaware of the lists of items to be made and collected, the lifting, the stringent administrative requirements such as consent forms, the time you will spend worrying about if your child is going to survive, no, at this stage you are just so proud that your Scout was chosen.

Then about a week or two before the event, you find your name added to a Whatsapp group and the troop Scouter is blasting info about teams, reserves, kit list items, lifting and suddenly there is work that you are required to do…

This is where I want to SALUTE 1st Muizenberg moms, at the point where we get to organising lifts, making and volunteering items that our Scouts need for the competition, generally organising the teams, at that point where the team work happens - 1st Muizenberg moms put up their hands and whole heartedly participate each and every time. Thank you!

Upton this year was really special, and yes the Scouts had fun, you can see for yourself in the photos, but it was special for moms, we did good!

A huge thanks to the mom who prepared mac and cheese dinner for me and a Mother's Day Protea for when we returned late after a long tiring day, that is where my heart saw the gold that we achieved together as a team.

Well done team mom, lets do this again!