Heritage - Founder's Day and World Thinking Day, February 22
| Category: | Scouting Heritage |
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| Props: | A world map or globe (optional) |
| Notes: | For the meeting nearest February 22, the shared birthday of Robert and Olave Baden-Powell. Scouts call it Founder's Day (or B.-P. Day), and Girl Scouts and Girl Guides call it World Thinking Day. Works for any scouting program. Part of a series on Scouting heritage - see the other heritage minutes in this category. |
February 22 is a special day for Scouts all around the world. It's the birthday of Robert Baden-Powell, the founder of Scouting.
And here's an interesting coincidence: it was also the birthday of his wife, Olave Baden-Powell. She was more than thirty years younger than he was, and they shared the same birthday. Olave became the World Chief Guide and spent her life building Guiding and Girl Scouting around the globe.
So February 22 has two names. Many Scouts call it Founder's Day. Girl Guides and Girl Scouts call it World Thinking Day, a day to think about the millions of other girls and boys in scouting in nearly every country on Earth.
(Hold up the map or globe, if you have one.) Right now there are Scouts in Kenya, Japan, Brazil, Norway, and India. They say a promise a lot like ours. They tie the same knots, sing around campfires, and try to leave places better than they found them. Many of them use the same left-handed handshake we do.
We usually think about our own troop or pack, our own campouts, our own patrol. That's natural. But today, take a second to think bigger. You belong to one of the largest youth movements in the world, and it all goes back to two people who happened to share a birthday.
Happy Founder's Day. Happy World Thinking Day.