Marion marks 40 years - 05-11-2009
Marion marks 40 years
LONG-SERVING Didcot scout leader Marion Fountain has taken the Wolf Cub’s motto ‘Do your best’ to the extreme.
Mrs Fountain, better known as Rashka to members of 23rd Didcot Sea Scout Group, has celebrated 40 years of volunteering with cub and scout groups.
The 69-year-old, of Merritt Road, Didcot, first became involved with cubs and scouts when she was talked into volunteering shortly after moving to the town from Peterborough in 1969.
She said: “I had no previous involvement. I’d never been a Brownie or a Guide.
“But we had moved here just a year before, I had left my friends behind and I was bored of being at home.
“My husband was happy to look after the children in the evening.”
Mrs Fountain has seen the children and even grandchildren of her former Cubs and Scouts attend the group on Friday evenings. The Cub Scout promise runs in her family. Her son Andrew is a group Scout leader and her grandsons Edward and George are Scouts.
She said: “It gives the children something to do and I think it’s good for them. It is co-educational now, but I do think the outdoor life is very good for boys in particular.
“The children haven’t changed but they are a lot more restricted in what they can do in terms of health and safety.”
Arthritis has led Mrs Fountain to prepare to scale back her involvement, although she will continue to help training scout leaders.
At a celebration of her contribution to Scouting at All Saints Church Hall, she was presented with a certificate, a crystal paperweight and a scrap book of pictures and memories of people who had known her.
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