NewmarketToday is marking the giving season by celebrating our Community Angels — the people whose kindness, compassion and community spirit help make our town one of the best to live in the country.
The year was 1986. Robert Cole’s son was five years old, when his neighbour came knocking on his door, asking if Cole’s son wanted to join the Beavers.
Cole took his son to the meeting, where he was asked if he would fill in as the group’s treasurer. As a retired banker, Cole obliged, until it turned out at the following meeting someone had already filled the position.
“I said, ‘Oh, goody, I'm off the hook. I can just walk away,’” he said. But then another member approached him, asking if he’d be interested in stepping in as group committee chair.
“So I volunteered for it,” said Cole. “And that was 38 years ago.”
Since then Cole has worn almost all the hats on offer within the Scouts, acting as a group commissioner for local and regional groups, and playing a large role in organizing the annual Fort George Scout camp, a weekend event at the Fort George National Historic Site in Niagara-on-the-Lake.
The role was a perfect fit for Cole, who is a self-confessed “history nut." The camp sees Scout groups from across Canada and the U.S. converge at the site of the old fort, and re-enact the life of a soldier on the frontlines of the War of 1812.
Planning for the event starts in October, ahead of the annual event that takes place in September.
“It’s a lot of work,” said Cole. “My wife asks me, ‘So you do all that for a weekend?’”
Over his more than three decades of involvement with the Scouts, the organization has evolved, the leaders are now called Scouters, and the groups are now more youth-led.
“We will teach them, we will guide them, we will give them some suggestions, but the biggest thing you want them to do is we want them to learn on their own,” said Cole. “It's hands-on learning experience for them.”
“I love working with the youth. I love watching the youth grow,” said Cole. “I love watching them go from a five-year-old Beaver, to a nine-year-old Cub to a 13-year-old Scout, and a lot of them, have become scouters. And I'm old enough now that some of my scouts have got children who are involved in scouting.”
Cole said he's learned a lot from the generations of scouts who he's seen grow up.
"You have to recognize that as an adult that, our ideas, our ways of doing things, are not always the right way or the correct way or the best way of doing something," he said. "They have tremendous potential and ideas and they're raring to go and let them express themselves, let them be creative."
While he's still busy with various duties, including acting as quartermaster and looking after all the equipment, Cole is looking to take a step back, with hopefully the next generation of scouts, and scouters taking on his mantle in the future.
"One thing I have learned, not only in the scouting world but in the business world, is that as soon as you get a job, the first thing you have to do is to look for your replacement."
