ARQUÀ POLESINE (Rovigo) – On the weekend of 20-21 April 2024 at Arquà Polesine a very important event was held for all Scout Agesci of the province of Rovigo: the San Giorgio. This is an event that is celebrated by Scouts from all over Italy every year to remember the patron saint of Scouts, namely San Giorgio, chosen for his chivalrous nature.
For the occasion, in our territory, all the Guides and Explorers of the 11 Agesci Scout Groups in the Rovigo area meet in one place to spend the two days together challenging themselves in organized competitions to test their skills, both physical and the expressive and intellectual ones, to proclaim the winning squadron at the end. This year the place designated for the event was Arquà Polesine.
In the afternoon boys and girls pitched their tents and at 5pm the event officially began with the opening flag raising ceremony, the flags were hoisted by the Volpi squadron of the Canda Department, winner of San Giorgio 2023 and the Chiefs presented the theme of this San Giorgio: around the world in 80 – in this case 2 however – days. Throughout the late afternoon, in fact, all the squadrons were committed, dividing themselves into two shifts, to set up a “fair” in which to present the talent of the squadron to the squadrons that were curious to learn new skills from other boys, we were presented with talents of each type based on what the boy and girl groups do best.
At the end of this long moment of exchange, all the children participated in the Holy Mass together, at the end of which each group had dinner with their department. During the evening the evening games took place, the boys instead of being placed only in their usual squadrons were placed in bi-squadrons, i.e. teams made up of 2 squadrons from 2 different departments, so as to encourage meeting and getting to know each other among the boys of groups with different traditions but the same fundamental ideals. At the end of the games all the kids were called around to raise the flag where they hoped to spend a peaceful night singing the song “Mister tra le tents lined up”. On Sunday, however, the actual day of challenges took place, all 11 of which were organized by the Heads of each Department, taking countries and cities from all over the world as their theme of inspiration: New York, London, Hong Kong, Paris, China, Japan, Ireland and many others.
Every challenge for the boys was, both in victory and in defeat, an opportunity to meet and clash, but also to improve and useful for learning to get involved! Once the playing time was over, each Department met to dismantle the tents and have lunch while preparing for the imminent end of the San Giorgio. As tradition everyone was called to the final flag-raising ceremony, here the Chiefs announced the squadrons that formed this year’s podium: this San Giorgio 2024 sees an all-female podium! In joint third place are the Wolves of Villadose and the Wolves of Canda, in second place we find the Panthers of Melara and finally, this year’s winners… the Aironi of Santa Maria Maddalena! For these girls and their departments, savoring the victory was an immense joy, but also for all the other boys and girls who participated it was an experience to treasure and which will always be part of our baggage of adventures following in the footsteps of B.-P.
Until the next adventure, Happy Hunting!
Energetic Nightingale
