From Taranto to Bari, the Scouts’ birthday party. The photos – BariLive.it

Masci Puglia, from 3 to 5 May, hosted a birthday party which started from Taranto and arrived in Bari, involving all the Apulian communities and local Agesci groups.

MASCI, which is the movement of adult scouts, in Italy has around 6000 members and 400 communities spread across the entire national territory.

The Movement was born on 20 June 1954, at the Domus Pacis in Rome, from an intuition of Mario Mazza, from Genoa, who after having promoted the birth of scout groups at the beginning of the last century, after the Second World War turned to adult scouts and he founded MASCI.

This 70th birthday is honored in all regions of Italy, with a relay carrying around an exhibition which, in addition to telling the long story of these 70 years, also exposes the activities and values ​​that the Masci Adult Scouts bear witness to in life everyday.

The slogan of the celebrations is “More Life to Life”, a unique and special opportunity to present the value system of Scouting which, in adulthood, translates into active commitment towards oneself – through the methodological process of permanent education and the search for meaning, in a community context, of experiential experience – and towards the care of Others in the full belief that the Search for Happiness passes through “Serving and Making Others Happy”.

On the evening of May 3, two conferences on two Encyclicals of Pope Francis were held simultaneously in Taranto and Bari. In Taranto in the Parish of San Francesco de Geronimo, in the Tamburi district, on the Encyclical “Fratelli tutti” and in Bari in the Sala Odegitria of the Bari Cathedral on “Laudato Sii e ​​Scappello”, introduced by Don Jean Paul Lieggi and followed by the screening of the film “ The Letter”.

On May 4th in Taranto, after the opening of the exhibition, workshops were organized in Piazza Carmine which aimed to talk about the importance of water for our lives; of cyberbullying and the dangers of the internet; of legality with particular attention to the figure of Don Beppe Diana, a scout priest killed by the Camorra in Casal di Principe. The greetings from the Mayor, a former Scout who wished the Movement a long life, and from Monsignor Marco Gerardo were appreciated. The adult scouts coming from different locations in Puglia were also able to discover the beauties of the city of Taranto during the guided tours organized by the Taranto 4 community.

In the evening after the Holy Mass, the classic cutting of the cake.

On May 5th in Bari, the event took place in Piazza Odegitria, the square in front of the Bari Cathedral and saw the participation of the National President, Massimiliano Costa, in the afternoon the President of the Agesci Committee, Francesco Scoppola, also joined in celebrating together with us the 50 years of Agesci.

Also present at the initial opening circle were the Councilor for Welfare Francesca Bottalico and the Councilor for the Productive City and the Sea, Carla Palone.

In Bari, in addition to the exhibition, workshops on Peace were held with the aim of introducing people who have spent their lives for Peace and Justice; on the 2030 Agenda, where its objectives and the need to change our lifestyles were explained; on Migrants with attention to the tortuous and dangerous path that they are forced to face to reach a Promised Land which often turns out to be a Land of death; and finally a laboratory of skilled hands because the adult scout knows how to be hardworking and economical.

Participated in the guided tour of the streets, monuments and churches of the old city.

In the afternoon the Masci Music Band held a concert of scout songs which entertained and made everyone present sing.

After the Holy Mass in the Cathedral in the presence of the two regional Assistants Masci and Agesci, the day ended with the cutting of a cake that brought together the birthdays of the two associations Masci and Agesci and the reading of a greeting message by the Regional Secretary of Masci Puglia.

The events were also an opportunity to start a fundraiser in Puglia for three projects that want to represent the meaning of these 70 years of Adult Scouting, projected towards Life and the Future: the donation of a Thermal Cradle to the First Reception Center of Lampedusa, the creation of the Education Forest with 21 trees in Argenta where Don Giovanni Minzoni was killed in 1923 at the hands of the fascists precisely because he had made the free education of young people his mission, the construction of a carpentry laboratory in Zambia for create and provide job opportunities in those villages.