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Scouts chief recalls meeting Princess Kate during secret Lake District visit
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Apr 15, 2025
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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Joining us now is the Chief Scout of the Scouting Association, Dwayne Fields
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Dwayne, welcome to the programme. Thank you for joining us. You must be delighted at the partnership with the Princess of Wales
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and the video is you were in that creation. Yes, good morning, first of all. Yes, I'm absolutely delighted with it
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The Princess of Wales has been one of our joint presidents for some time now
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and hopefully that will continue. There's no reason to think it won't
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And I am delighted. Her platform allows for her to really basically become a megaphone for all the great things we do in Scouting
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And there's no denying it. Every single week, we've got half a million young people and adult volunteers meeting
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And they are learning, building friendships, learning those really important skills for life, having fun
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Like I said, making friendships. And they're doing all of this voluntarily
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and just like I am, so is the Princess of Wales. She's a volunteer just like the rest of us
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Tell us about more of those things that the scouting groups do
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that she's responsible for spreading. And this whole thing Dwayne she talks about being at peace with nature and the environment around her How important is that How important is it to get that message home And how important is it for more young people
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to be able to experience that? Well, for example, what you've mentioned there
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you know, being at one with nature, being at peace in nature, I think it's really important for young people
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to spend time outdoors. We recognise from all the reports, and you yourself have spoken about it
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mental health issues that we have in society nowadays. Now, this isn't the silver bullet, but I think it is part of the solution. The more young
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people we can get to spend time in our natural spaces, I think the better we'll be, generally
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speaking, when we're talking about well-being. Now, in regards to what young people do in our
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scout groups, it could range from cooking to map reading to model making. Whatever skills the
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volunteer brings are the skills that we utilize in our groups, and they learn along the way as well
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And just on that point, I want to just say, the one thing that we need more of in Scouts and more volunteers
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currently as I sit here, there are 105 or so thousand young people waiting to join a group
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And the only barrier to them joining that group and benefiting just like the other half a million
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is the fact that we just don have enough volunteers to keep up with demand Why do you not have more volunteers I mean if I wasn in this wheelchair mate I be there leading the charge for you
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But who are you looking for? What age would they have to be? And why are they not there
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Eamon, I'm glad you said if you weren't in that wheelchair. The wheelchair is not a barrier to becoming one of our wonderful volunteers
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Now, the reason we don't have enough is we just can't keep up with demand
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There are so many families, parents, young people themselves looking at Scouts and seeing the great things that we do, seeing how we impact communities, how we change lives for the better, how we instill skills and values and self-confidence in so many young people
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And they want to be a part of it. We just don't have enough volunteers
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So if you are able and if you've got a few hours that you can spare, please consider joining us, Eamon, and being one of our volunteers
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is our young people could learn so much from you and anyone listening, if you're an adult
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and if you want to be part of a really wonderful movement
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you want to volunteer, you've got something to teach and you're willing to learn as well
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consider joining up as one of our volunteers. It sounds good. It sounds good. I just don't think I would suit the shorts at my age
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But that's it. But there's Dwayne. That why not great in the necker Well there Dwayne Fields He the chief scout man he is And Dwayne you the man with the right name for what we talking about today
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Fields, nature, become one with it. Great talking to you, my friend
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Thank you very much. Thank you. Well, joining us in the studio to react to that
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we've got our correspondent, Cameron Walker. Obviously, Princess Kate has been a partner
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with the scouts for a long time. Do you think this is a new boost to get volunteers
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to reset the Scouts? What's behind this? Well, yes, she's been a joint president since 2020
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And I think it was very interesting what Dwayne said there, actually, about the Princess being a megaphone for great things we do with Scouting
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It's the kind of public image that a member of the royal family, particularly the Princess of Wales, can give
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and gives organisations such as Scouts a megaphone to, you know, tell us that they don't have enough volunteers
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and appeal to the public, really, that more is needed to get kids away from their mobile devices and out in nature
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We just see pictures on our screen of Prince George volunteering at a scout group
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This was back in May 2023 during the coronation where the Prince and Princess of Wales
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brought their three children to a local scout hut in, I think it was near Slough
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And they were busy recreating, well, renovating a scout hut. And Prince Louis nearly tipped over a tractor, a digger with Prince William
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And yes, that was funny
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