Military experts teach scouts bush skills at Bucze

By Heather Sutherland - Staff Reporter - Barrys Bay This Week Newspaper

Posted 7 days ago

Camp Bucze was full of activity over the long weekend as Polish girl scouts from across Ontario gathered to learn and improve their camp-craft skills from military experts.

This is the second year this training weekend has been held at the camp located off Old Barry's Bay Road on Halfway Lake.

Camp co-ordinator, Barbara Wozniak, said they did it last year to prepare for the International Jamboree in Poland.

She said Canada wanted to show well, and due to the excellent training and practice the girls had beforehand, Canada won first in almost every category.

"They did well because they use proper materials and proper knots," Wozniak said.

Word of the successful training spread quickly, and Wozniak said the number of girls signed up doubled from last year to 70 girls.

The weekend focused on teaching girls "camp-craft" skills, or, "old-school bush craft" in the words of instructor Dave Harris.

Harris, a federal safety officer at CFB Petawawa, along with his team of three other trainers from the military, taught the girls – aged 11 to 16 – the effective and proper use of knots and lashes.

"We teach them skills in the bush using as much natural resources as possible," Harris said.

Wozniak said the training is meant to give the girls the skills, but to also prepare them for their camps later in the summer, where they will need to use those skills to build wash stations, hangers for clothes, fires and other structures.

What was immediately evident when at the camp was the mutual respect between both the instructors and the girls.

Malwina Rewkowska, the other camp co-ordinator, said the girls were captivated by their trainers.

"The great thing about the guys is that they're engaging," she said.

"The girls are mesmerized even despite the age difference."

That respect worked the other way as well.  "The girls are keen," Harris said.  "They have a really positive attitude and they ask me how to do things. That's very refreshing."  He added, "This is a long weekend and they could be elsewhere, but they come here because their attitude is so good."

The girls not only respected Harris and his team, but appreciated their work as well.  Renia Woloch did a workshop with Harris – who has run different workshops at the camp since 2001 – a few years ago and said it's nice that the military wants to work with the Scouts.  "They appreciate that we're doing Polish stuff, so they help us," she said.  She added that Harris seems to like the girls as much as they like him.

For Harris, he said he finds the experience hugely rewarding.  "I learned this stuff from my mom and dad," he said. "Then I joined the army and learned more. So it's good to see it passed on: there's continuity there."

Learning new bush skills are not the only thing the girls take away from the weekend though, Wozniak noted.

She said working with girls from across the province and learning these skills teaches the girls leadership, diplomacy and dealing with different situations and personalities.

"The main thing, though, is leadership," she said.

Wozniak also noted the girls are trained well enough on the weekend that they can then take those skills back to their respective units and teach others.

The leaders and girls alike enjoy the weekend, but all point to Harris and his team as making it worthwhile.

Eva Razumienko, another former workshop participant, said working with Harris gives them a sense of accomplishment and the girls continue to talk about what they learned after it's done.

She said, "It's one of the most memorable things that we've done."

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