The Basilica Recreation Centre — Befimz and After

“The show will be presented again tonight and tomorrow night, and anyone seeking an evening of enjoyable entertainment, may well be advised to attend.”

BOY SCOUTS

The balcony was on the third floor. It was the meeting place for the Boy Scouts, Cubs, Girl Guides and Brownies. In 1919, Frank Trainor formed the first scout troop. Fr. Pat McMahon was assistant scoutmaster. The sponsor was The League of the Cross. After a slowdown in activities in the 19305, Harry Pineau revived the 1St Charlottetown Basilica Boy Scout Troop in the early 19405. I was a member of that troop, and stayed active for over 30 years. It was a great experience in character and confidence building.

In 1949 I had the opportunity to attend the first Canadian Boy Scout Jamboree in Ottawa as Troop leader.

It was amazing how we bonded together and became life long friends. Over the 50 plus years, the jamboree was held on the Island three times. Each time we organized a reunion at the camp and it was great to see so many come back to reminisce about the good times we had as a scout family. The first jamboree had about 3,000 scouts, and the last one on the Island had over 20,000. In effect, it was the third largest community on the Island for 10 days. One

can imagine the logistics of moving and feeding that many people. The word “jamboree” was chosen to describe these gatherings by Lord Baden-Powell, the founder of the Boy Scouts. There are many theories regarding the origin of the word, including that it is an American Indian word meaning “a joyful meeting of

the tribes”.

Scouting was founded in 1907 by Lord Baden—Powell in England and quickly spread all over the world. The simple message of “being prepared” by keeping fit, helping others, respecting nature and the environment and learning to survive in the great outdoors, was very appealing to me as a young person. I was very impressed with “The Chief’s Last Message” which Baden-Powell wrote:

“Dear Scouts—If you have ever seen the play ‘Peter Pan’ you will remember how the pirate chief was always making his dying speech because he was afraid

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