SOURCE: The Times

DATE: 12 April 1993

PAGE: 3 Fear of crime closes door on scouts;Scout Association By Nicholas Watt 

A CELEBRATED British tradition passed into history yesterday when scouts were told to avoid knocking on strangers' doors during "bob-a-job'' week, which begins today.

The Scout Association said that rising crime, particularly against youngsters, had forced it to warn members to stick to trusted neighbours and friends. John Fogg, of the Scout Association, regretted the end of the door-to-door search for jobs. "It is sad that scouts can no longer knock on strangers' doors,'' he said. "This warning, which has taken away the original idea of Scout Job Week, is a reflection that young people are not as safe on the streets as they once were.''

Thousands of scouts will work in groups this week as they clean cars, wash windows and clear overgrown gardens. "Supervised groups or patrol projects are recommended,'' Mr Fogg said.

The Scout Job Week was launched in 1914 when the blind publisher C. Arthur Pearson, later Sir Arthur, asked scouts to help him to raise money to publish in braille. Mindful that Lord Baden-Powell, who founded the scouts in 1908, forbade them from begging or collecting money, Sir Arthur devised the scheme of hiring them out to raise money.

Mr Fogg said there were some ingenious methods of raising money in 1914. "Scouts pushed bath chairs, lathered barbers' customers and 50 helped serve dinner at the Hotel Metropole in London,'' he said.

The idea was abandoned during the first world war and it was not until 1949 that bob-a-job week was launched. Mr Fogg said: "The idea was that every scout would raise one shilling for the headquarters and keep anything else for their local group. That year one scout unpacked 1,400 eggs without breaking one.'' 


(c) Times Newspapers Ltd. 1993
