Scouting history

The scout history began in 1907. An Englishman named Robert Baden-Powell took 21 boys on camp. On Brownsea-Island, southwest from London, they were divided into patrols (groups) and then tried exercises and games that BP had told them by the campfire.

After a successful camp, BP wrote the book “Scouting for boys”. The scout idea caught quickly and patrols started all over the world. Soon the girls also wanted to be scouts, so in 1910 BP made a program for girlscouts. In the beginning they were leaded by his sister but later on by his wife Olave Baden-Powell. The first boyscout patrols in Denmark started 1909 and the first girlscout patrols were in 1910.   

In 1926, scouts all over the world celebrated “thinking day” 22th February. That day were both Olave and Robert Baden-Powell’s birthday and they got a lot of birthday cards from scouts all over the world. But Olave thought that all the money the scouts spent on stamps for her birthday cards, instead should go to a fond that would support the creation of scouting in countries where it didn’t exist. There is a tradition for scouts in Denmark where every scout gives money on thinking day, to the thinking day-fond. The day is celebrated in many different ways but what scouts really have in common is that they’re thinking and helping other scouts all over the world.