Scouts take part in acts of kindness for HM The Queen

Over her 70-year reign, HM The Queen demonstrated care and kindness. She was a true friend to Scouts everywhere, and we’ll always be grateful for her service and dedication.

Since the sad news of her passing, many Scouts have shown extra kindness in her honour. From painting fences to planting flowers, our Kindness for The Queen activity has inspired many Scouts to go the extra mile for others. We’re so proud of them all.

Here’s what some incredible Scouts have been up to.

Scouts in the village of Willand are helping their community by painting the fence around a children’s playground.

James Bicknell, their Group Scout Leader, said: ‘We were approached by the Parish Council to see if we could undertake some work around the village. 

‘As Scouts make regular use of the parish play parks around Willand, we decided to take on the painting as our act of kindness for The Queen to support our community.’

‘By painting the fence around the children's play park, we’ve been able to give the area a lift.’

The community are delighted with the results and they’re very proud of the Scouts, who volunteered their spare time for the benefit of others.

Beavers at 8^th Sutton Coldfield decorated 40 flowerpots with crowns and hearts and planted chrysanthemums in memory of The Queen.

They left them in the local church, where the Beavers meet each week, and invited members of the congregation to take them home. It gave people a wonderful gift to remember The Queen by (and brightened up their day).

We chatted to Barbara and Jan, who are volunteers at the Beaver Colony. They said:

‘We wanted to do something at our one meeting between The Queen’s death and the funeral. We recently did the Gardener’s badge, but there’s nowhere at our meeting place to plant flowers.

‘We decorated flowerpots for Mother’s Day, so we came up with the idea of decorating the pots with crowns and hearts. We potted chrysanthemums, giving them to the church congregation to take home if they wished. All 40 pots were taken very quickly.’

‘Our Group Scout Leader received many words of surprise and thanks from members of the congregation who took pots. Some even sent emails or cards for the Beavers expressing their thanks.

‘We read them out and showed them to the Beavers this week in our ’Show and Tell’ circle time. The Beavers were really pleased to have received thank yous.

‘The Beavers were proud of themselves for making other people happy and we think they’ll remember what they did in memory of The Queen for a long time.’

The Beavers got lots of positive feedback for their act of kindness. Here’s an email the group got after the flowers were taken:

‘Dear Beavers,

Thank you so much for the lovely plants and plant pots you made and left at church for people to take home. The plant pots are lovely, they'll remind me of Queen Elizabeth II and her wonderful long reign and all that she did for everyone.

Best wishes,

Meriel’

Joseph, who's in Cubs, chose not one, but three generous acts of kindness for The Queen. He did them using his own pocket money.

Joseph bought food from his local supermarket to give to a food bank. He also bought flowers for three elderly ladies, who live on his nan’s road, and even donated money to the Pakistan floods appeal charity bucket.

Joseph’s mum said: ‘The reason Joseph picked these three things is because he doesn’t like the thought of families and children going without any food and being hungry.’

‘He picked to donate money to the Pakistan Floods Appeal as it made him sad the thought of people losing their homes and belongings. He also wanted to buy flowers for three elderly ladies to cheer them up after the sad news of The Queen passing away. He wanted to put a smile back on their faces, and one of the ladies cried she was that happy.’

For their act of kindness, Beaver Scout Tom and his parents spent an afternoon tidying, weeding, planting rosemary and clearing the ground of their meeting place. They wanted to honour The Queen on the day of her funeral.

They did the work that needed to be done, and they thought The Queen, as our Patron, would appreciate it.

Tom said: ‘The weeds had grown, and the plants died. It was very overgrown. I pulled and chopped up weeds and put them in a sack.’

‘We planted rosemary for The Queen to remember her. I think she would've liked that. Everyone says it looks a lot better now and it means we can run around and cook outside.’

Scouts at 1^st Hullbridge gave away Purple Pansies for their act of kindness. Their Purple Pansies were accompanied by postcards to explain their act of kindness was to recognise the passing of The Queen.

At their session, the Scouts wrapped their plant pots in coloured paper to turn them into gifts and took them home with a postcard created by their Scout volunteer, Dean.

They were asked to give the plant pots to people in their village. The Scouts knocked on doors, accompanied by responsible adults, to surprise members of their community with the pansies.

Dean said: ‘The inspiration behind the act of kindness idea started from the statement put out by Scouts. I created the postcard using the Scouts’ statement. After a few personal additions, I printed postcards for every Scout.

‘I decided on purple pansies, as they seemed the obvious choice. Firstly, the purple and white is representative of the World Scout membership badge and are colours we immediately recognise as Scouts. Secondly, I felt the deep purple colour was regal looking – after all, it’s the colour of Her Majesty’s crown.

‘The word soon spread though our local village Facebook page with messages of thanks, as randomly-picked residents were receiving pansies and postcards. We really appreciated the thanks, but we just really wanted to surprise a total stranger with a random act of kindness, especially at this sad time.’

Some of the messages the group received include:

‘I had a lovely plant delivered by a very nice young Scout. A great surprise and a brilliant idea. Very pleased to be a recipient.’ – Lynn.

‘A lovely little girl also knocked on my door, read a beautiful little poem, and gave me a lovely plant.  I was so surprised I didn’t feel I thanked her enough. Thank you.’ – Barbara.

Scouts at Islandmagee made their individual pledges, carrying out their acts of kindness in the weeks after HM The Queen’s passing.

Max and Oliver, who're in Cubs, and Ben, who's in Beavers, tidied up their local area by picking up litter. Ethan, who's in Cubs, donated to a food bank, too.