A Scout group has picked up their tools as they set out to help the community by clearing pathways and maintaining forestry at Paisley's Barshaw Park.
Paisley North Explorer Scouts have recently formed a partnership with The Friends of Barshaw Park group to help look after the area, with the group feeling that they need to be more active in the community now the world has opened up again following the Coronavirus lockdowns.
Explorer Scouts, the section after Scouts for those aged 14 to 18 years old - cleared paths of branches and helped maintain any areas of the park that needed to be cared for.
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Assistant Explorer Scout leader Lawrence Smeaton said: “It is an exciting partnership that has really only just started between ourselves and The Friends of Barshaw.
“We wanted to get involved as a way to give back to our community because throughout the lockdown and the covid period young people haven’t been able to get out and been seen around helping as much as we want to.”
“When we arrived at the park we helped out any way we could, this was through clearing paths.
“The young people were actually the driving force behind us getting out and helping more in the community as they wanted to volunteer.”
The group also used the occasion to help introduce new members by performing a 'Scout promise' - as HM The Queen was patron they renewed their promise to the new King.
Lawrence added: “We always introduce new members into the group with a promise and that is their way of being inducted into the group.
“The promise is towards the royal family as they are the patrons and that is why we felt it was right to renew all our promises to King Charles III.
“We always aim to do our promises in areas that are interesting or would be memorable. We felt that Barshaw Park was an interesting place for all of us to mark the occasion”
As events begin to catch up with themselves once again, the Paisley North Explorers can look forward to meeting up with other groups next month as they look to attend the national scout groups in Inverness, although no date has been confirmed yet.
Lawrence has highlighted this as a moment for them to re-establish connections with other groups in the area, and further afield.
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