News
Sports
Weather
Classifieds
Opinions
Obituaries
Special Reports

Home
About Us
FAQ
Links
Advertising

Carstairs Courier
Didsbury Review
Innisfail Province
Mountain View Gazette
Olds Albertan
Sundre Round Up

Commercial Printing
Great West Newspapers

Boy Scouts across Canada are taking an old saying to heart – "one good turn deserves another."

This week, Boys Scouts Canada is hosting Good Turn Week and they’re hoping it will catch on.

"I think it’s awesome," said Innisfail Chief Scouter, Blain Staples. "Our motto has always been to do a good turn daily, and this will help the youth with their goals.

"It’s important, as a community, that we help each other out."

Good Turn Week runs March 7-13, but Blain said he thinks it would be wonderful if people continued on with it.

As part of Good Turn Week, every time a member of Boy Scouts does a good deed, or "good turn," for someone, he will give that person a rubber bracelet that has "Good Turn" and the Boy Scouts website written on it. The goal is for the recipient of that bracelet to then do a good turn for someone else and pass the bracelet on.

Everyone that passes the bracelet on is encouraged to go to scouts.ca to register his or her good turn.

"This is a brand new campaign," said Staples. "I haven’t seen anything like it in my 11 years with Scouts."

Staples said Boy Scouts is the largest youth organization worldwide, and that it has been growing everywhere, except North America.

"This move is to rejuvenate the program," Staples said. "Scouts is a really rich leadership program and it provides a rounded education in personal development and life skills."

Blain said he got involved in Boy Scouts in Red Deer because his neighbour was involved in it. His sons started Boy Scouts in Red Deer but moved to the Innisfail chapter when Red Deer didn’t offer a level for his boys’ age group.

Although Staples said his boys have moved up to the Venturers group, he still loves being part of the Scouts organization.

"Seeing the kids grow and learn to do things for themselves – it’s a great feeling," he said. "We offer a good experience for the kids."

Aric Duffy, now part of the Venturers group because he is 15 years old, has been involved in Boy Scouts ever since he moved to Innisfail eight years ago.

"It was interesting, so I stuck with it," he said of Scouts.

Duffy said this new Good Turn campaign is unlike anything he’s heard of before.

"I think it will catch on," he said. "I’m definitely going to participate."

"We’re going to see if we can create a movement in the community," said Staples. "There will be about 80 of these bracelets circulating around town next week, so hopefully a lot of people that receive the bracelets will pass them on."