The St Julian’s scout group every year organises a raft in the sea at St Julian’s Bay for a few days. Since this year scouting celebrates its 100th year world-wide, they decided to organise this event for a whole week. It took place between 13-21 July on a raft positioned between St Julian’s water polo pitch and the Cavallieri Hotel. The young members (10-16-year-olds) really look forward to it as they spend a week in an adventurous way, cooking, doing the shopping (they go by canoes to shore), and socialising without the stressful lifestyle of school exams and other commitments. It is a clean, healthy environment which keeps them out of mischief.

The idea behind the camp-a-float

It all started seven years ago as a big event to mark the new millennium.

As we all know, open spaces for camping are becoming restricted as time goes by due to the construction industry, the group came up with the bright idea of building a large raft and pitching a tent for a couple of days.

This year, the raft platform was enlarged and became known as “camp-a-float”.

During the event, 11 group members from the troop and unit sections and their leaders lived on the raft.

A jam-packed programme was prepared which consisted of canoeing, cleaning up the bay from debris, swimming tests, seaside skills, food preparation and cooking on board and eventually sleeping on board too.

The St Julian’s scout group is a non-profit organisation and therefore relies on the funds collected from fund raising activities.

The camp-a-float event helps to raise funds for the group in order to buy more equipment and help the group set up a media room at the group’s headquarters.

Like last year, the Vodafone Foundation Malta generously sponsored this event.