14 Patrol Good Turns

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1. Patrol System
02 The Patrol Leader And Second
03 How Can A Leader Lead?
04 When Should A Leader Lead?
05 Privileges Of A Patrol Leader
06 Court Of Honor
07 The Patrol Spirit
08 Patrol Discipline
09 Patrol Instruction In Second Class Work
10 Patrol Instruction In Proficiency Badges
11 Patrol In Council
12 Patrol Competitions
13 The Patrol At Play
14 Patrol Good Turns
15 Inter-Patrol Visiting
16. Patrol In Camp
17. Difficulties
How To Start A Troop On The Patrol System

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A Leader with the Leatherworkers' badge was asked the other day why he had got it. He was a London Scout, and he explained that the members of his Patrol were too poor to take trains into the country on Saturday afternoons and that some of the parents would not let them walk as it wore out their boot-leather. He found that the remedy for this state of affairs was to learn how to mend boots, and he devoted one evening a month to helping the poorest Scouts in his Patrol in this way.

The object of the Badge System is obviously not only for a boy to earn his badge, and to get it, but also that when he has got it he should use it as frequently as possible. The Ambulance Scout should certainly look after the cuts and colds of any other boys he has to deal with. A Scout with a Missioner's badge is allowed to do Missioner's work. This is a great honor. In one of the London Associations a League of Good Service Scouts has been formed. The Association have got into touch with a Society for the Blind. A Patrol undertakes to look after and help one blind person for two or three months. This means that every week two different Scouts in the Patrol are selected to visit the case. The boys go into the house with smiles, keep their smiles when they get there, read the evening paper, sometimes take a gramophone with them, get books out of the Braille Library, and make themselves generally helpful and agreeable. 

It is a great thing to have a Patrol definitely performing some such collective good turn throughout the year. It does much to make them realize the Chief Scout's suggestion that Scouts should be like the knights of old, going out into the world doing good turns. The ancient knights often rescued maidens in distress, roped to trees in sylvan glades or tied with chains on perilous crags. If the modern knight of the bare knees finds that his distressed maiden is an old lady of eighty who lives in a garret and has lost her sight-well, perhaps it is worth while being a modern knight after all!

At any rate, there is no reason why every good Patrol in the Movement should not be doing some continuous Patrol good turn. This is equally possible in country and in town. in a country village Scouts can always help by visiting some old couple and helping them to dig their garden or to mend their chairs. In a town there are plenty of charitable agencies which will supply any amount of friendly work for willing Scouts to do.