Q store helps new Group with recycled tents
An amazing group of people has pulled together to form a new Scout Group. They discovered that gearing up from zero with equipment is expensive. Enter the Scout Q Store. A van full of assorted equipment, recycled and repurposed from other Scout Groups, is heading for a new exciting life of outdoor adventure with a new generation of the Scouting Community.
Scouting is growing
Scouting continues to grow in Victoria. Some growth occurs in existing Groups with established infrastructure and equipment. Some growth starts in the new suburbs of Melbourne and expanding suburbs in the Regions. The Scouting ideal of developing and connecting youth is as relevant in 2021 as it was 100 years ago. The programs have adapted to modern living while preserving the traditional skills of camping and outdoor activities.
Funding a New Scout Group
When a Scout Group starts from new, there are seemingly endless costs. A hall, electricity, water, uniforms for youth members and leaders, books, posters, flags, flag poles, signwriting, badges, game equipment, training equipment, toilet paper and a raft of unseen extras. Tireless fundraising by parents and children is supplemented with donations from friends and businesses.
Scout Gear Recycled for Big Events
The Scout Q Store exists to support youth programs. It is best known for routinely providing bulk equipment at low cost to Big Events such as Jamborees. The Big Events equipment includes tables and chairs for 1000 people, Marquees for dining or indoor activities, catering equipment, traffic control gear, Gazebos, and many more items. These items are transported, used, and then stored until next time at the Q Store in Ordish Road, Dandenong South.
Scout Gear Recycled for New Scout Groups
Did you also know that the Q Store receives gear and equipment from closed Scout Groups? It also accepts donations of end-of-stock equipment from retailers and manufacturers of outdoor equipment. This gear is checked, repurposed, and redirected to new Scout Groups. The available equipment is completely dependant on supply and demand. The most recent redirection has included tents, poles, guy ropes, pegs, tables and assorted bibs and bobs. We still don’t know how it all fitted into the pictured van.
How to be Involved as a Scout Gear donor
Closed Scout Group
Once upon a time, for example, there were 15 Scout Groups in Caulfield. Yes 15! It was the 1950s-1960s and Caulfield included Carnegie, Glenhuntly, Ormond and Elternwick. There were so many young families with lots and lots of children and they all wanted to be involved in Scouting. In the 1960s-1970s the new suburbs for young families were Glen Waverley and Bentleigh. Scout Groups in Caulfield closed, while dozens of new Groups were opening in Bentleigh, Moorabbin, Glen Waverley and beyond. This phenomenon spread to the North, South, East and West of Melbourne and continues to this day. It was not uncommon for the equipment associated with closed groups to disappear. Sometimes the gear would be locked up and forgotten. When the Scout Q Store opened in 2016 there was finally a place for unused gear to be inventoried and stored awaiting a new purpose. Do you know of a closed group? Can you help retrieve the gear and donate it to the Q Store?
Retail and Manufacturing
Redundant stock is commonplace in retail and manufacturing. Perhaps a product overrun, a cancelled order, a colour error or a change of trend. The Scouting network reaches into many industries around Victoria. Do you know of a business or industry that would otherwise send their unwanted stock to a landfill? Could this unwanted stock be useful in the Scouting community? Can you help facilitate a donation to the Scout Q Store? What have we got to lose? If the business or industry says “No thanks” or if the product is not Scout appropriate the Q store may say “No thanks”, there is no loss. On the flip side it may be WIN-WIN.
Get in touch
When you come across recycling, re-purposing opportunity, please get in touch by email. Alternatively drop into the Q Store on a Tuesday between 10.00am and 4.00pm. Come and see what the Scout Q Store is all about and meet the FoQs. Storing and recycling scout gear in support of the Scout youth programs.
