The Princess of Wales has been hailed as a "megaphone for Scouting" by Chief Scout Dwayne Fields, following the royal's visit to the Lake District.Featured in a new video released by Kensington Palace, Princess Kate opened up about her "very intense emotional connection" to nature - a message she has repeatedly reinforced following her cancer diagnosis and treatment.\FULL STORY HERE.
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00:00Joining us now is the Chief Scout of the Scouting Association, Dwayne Fields.
00:04Dwayne, welcome to the programme. Thank you for joining us.
00:07You must be delighted at the partnership with the Princess of Wales and the video is you were in that creation.
00:14Yes. Good morning, first of all. Yes, I'm absolutely delighted with it.
00:18The Princess of Wales has been one of our joint presidents for some time now, and hopefully that will continue.
00:25There's no reason to think it won't. And I am delighted. Her platform allows for her to really basically become a megaphone for all the great things we do in Scouting.
00:37And there's no denying it. Every single week, we've got half a million young people and adult volunteers meeting and they are learning, building friendships,
00:46learning those really important skills for life, having fun, like I said, making friendships.
00:51And they're doing all of this voluntarily. And just like I am, so is the Princess of Wales.
00:57She's a volunteer just like just like the rest of us.
01:00Tell us about more of those things that the scouting groups do, that she's responsible for spreading.
01:07And this whole thing, Dwayne, she talks about being at peace with nature and the environment around her.
01:14How important is that? How important is it to get that message home?
01:18And how important is it for more young people to be able to experience that?
01:23Well, for example, what you've mentioned there, you know, the being at one with nature, being at peace in nature,
01:30I think it's really important for young people to spend time outdoors.
01:33We recognize from all the reports and you yourself have even spoken about mental health issues that we have in society nowadays.
01:41Now, this isn't the silver bullet, but I think it is part of the solution.
01:44The more young people we can get to spend time in our natural spaces,
01:47I think the better we'll be, generally speaking, when we're talking about well-being.
01:53Now, in regards to what young people do in our scout groups, it could range from cooking to map reading to model making.
02:01Whatever skills the volunteer brings are the skills that we utilize in our groups, and they learn along the way as well.
02:09And just on that point, I want to just say the one thing that we need more of in scouts are more volunteers.
02:15Currently, as I sit here, there are 105 or so thousand young people waiting to join a group.
02:21And the only barrier to them joining that group and benefiting just like the other half a million is the fact that we just don't have enough volunteers to keep up with demand.
02:30Why do you not have more volunteers?
02:32I mean, if I wasn't in this wheelchair, mate, I'd be there leading the charge for you.
02:37But who are you looking for? What age would they have to be? And why are they not there?
02:42Hey, man, I'm glad you said if you weren't in that wheelchair.
02:46The wheelchair is not a barrier to becoming one of our wonderful volunteers.
02:50Now, the reason we don't have enough is we just can't keep up with demand.
02:54There are so many families, parents, young people themselves looking at scouts and seeing the great things that we do,
03:00seeing how we impact communities, how we change lives for the better,
03:03how we instill skills and values and self-confidence in so many young people,
03:08and they want to be a part of it. We just don't have enough volunteers.
03:12So if you are able and if you've got a few hours that you can spare,
03:16please consider joining us, Eamon, and being one of our volunteers.
03:20Our young people could learn so much from you and all the other, anyone listening,
03:24if you're an adult and if you're, you know, if you want to be part of a really wonderful movement,
03:29you want to volunteer, you've got something to teach and you're willing to learn as well,
03:33consider joining us as one of our volunteers.
03:35It sounds good. It sounds good. I just don't think I would suit the shorts at my age, but that's it.
03:41But there's Dwayne.
03:41That's why I look great in the necker.
03:44Well, there's Dwayne Fields. He's the chief scout man. He is.
03:47And Dwayne, you're the man with the right name for what we're talking about today.
03:52Fields, nature, become one with it.
03:55Great talking to you, my friend. Thank you very much. Thank you.
03:59Well, joining us in the studio to react to that, we've got our correspondent, Cameron Walker.
04:05Obviously, Princess Kate has been a partner with the scouts for a long time.
04:08Do you think this is a new boost to get volunteers to reset the scouts? What's behind this?
04:12Well, yes, she's been a joint president since 2020.
04:14And I think it's very interesting what Dwayne said there, actually,
04:16about the princess being a megaphone for great things we do with scouting.
04:20It's the kind of public image that a member of the royal family, particularly the Princess of Wales,
04:25can give and gives organisations such as scouts a megaphone to, you know,
04:30tell us that they don't have enough volunteers and appeal to the public, really,
04:34that more is needed to get kids away from their mobile devices and out in nature.
04:39And we just see pictures on our screen of Prince George volunteering at a scout group.
04:43This was back in May 2023 during the coronation where the Prince and Princess of Wales
04:48brought their three children to a local scout hut in, I think it was near Slough.
04:52And they were busy recreating, well, renovating a scout hut.
04:56And, yeah, Prince Louis nearly tipped over a tractor, a digger with Prince William.
05:00And, yeah, so that was funny.
05:01Yeah.