Tent Collections and Salvages

Isle of Wight Scouts have been associated with a number of tent collections and salvages, most of which have involved searching through the kit left behind in campsites after the Isle of Wight Festival and Bestival. Since 2007 thousands of tents, sleeping bags, chairs and other equipment have been salvaged for use by Island Scouts and Guides.

But IW Scouts have also provided camping equipment to help others.

In 2007 1st Wroxall Group Scout Leader Azwar Zahoor learned that in an earthquake in Pakistan he had lost several of his family members and several more were left homeless. Az is a true Scout and decided that he must do something to help. He contacted Isle of Wight Scout leaders, asking for any unwanted camping equipment which he could send to Pakistan. Soon a couple of pallets full of equipment were on route to Pakistan in an RAF aircraft. A helicopter from the Pakistani Air Force transported the equipment to the disaster area. I should point out that Az has contacts in the Pakistani military.

In 2007 Barry and I spent a day at the centenary Jamboree in Chelmsford. We met up with IW Scout Contingent leader Azwar who introduced us to some of his old Scouting friends from Pakistan.

You may recognise one or two faces from the relief flight photos. The amazing woggle belonged to Colonel Aftab Quereshi, Az's old Scout Leader.

In 2007 we also salvaged camping equipment from the Isle of Wight Festival which we collected for disaster relief in former Yugoslav territories. A doctor from St Marys hospital took several lorries of aid to his old home area and filled odd spaces in his shipments with camping equipment.

In 2009 Isle of Wight Festival promoter and ex-Scout John Giddings helped us salvage tents, sleeping bags and other equipment for Scouts and Guides in Antigua. Over 100 Scouts and Guides helped salvage over 2,000 items which we loaded in a container. John then paid for the container to be shipped to Antigua. As a firm believer in coincidences.......... a few years later I was working with a fellow contractor who happened to be from Antigua. When I told him about our efforts he laughed - his nephew was a Scout and his Scout Group used equipment shipped from the IW Festival - Thanks John!

Over the years we worked hard to salvage tents and other equipment and in 2011 members of IW Council joined in our salvage at Bestival as a fact finding field trip.

The days of thousands of tents being left behind by Island Festival goers have gone. Bestival moved to its' secondary location in Dorset. The Isle of Wight Festival has put great effort into reducing waste with campers in the two camping fields "Respect" and "Love your tent" guaranteeing to leave nothing behind them when they leave. These campers are supported by IW Scouts who help them move and setup their kit. Less camping equipment is left in the other camping fields too, as inflation has played a part in the decision by campers to use tents more than once.

HQ's media team sent a reporter to join us at the IW Festival in 2010, and he wrote an article which appeared in Scouting magazine a few months later? Wanna read it? download a copy here