Waterford's De La Salle Scouts honoured for decades of service

A mayoral reception was recently held for De La Salle Scouts and De La Salle Pipe Band, in recognition of their 95 years of musical excellence, community service and for their enduring legacy and contributions to Waterford.

Metropolitan Mayor Jody Power presented the group with a plaque in City Hall.

De La Salle Scout Group is the oldest group in Waterford and their leaders have been at the foundations of many other groups in the Waterford Scout County.

Group Leader, Pat Murphy, spoke to the Waterford News & Star about the recent recognition at City Hall, saying, “The scout group and the pipe band had two milestones recently: De La Salle Scout Group celebrated its 95th anniversary last year, and the band is celebrating its 90th anniversary this year.

“So the Metropolitan Mayor invited us along to take onboard all we have done for the city, and made a lovely presentation of a plaque to us, which is now sitting proudly in our scout hall. We had about 40 people there representing the 100 young members and the 50 adults we have in the group."

Reflecting on what it was that prompted the recent recognition, Pat said that local scout groups have been teaching Waterford children essential life skills for generations.

“It’s a whole learning for life, what we call an out-of-school educational programme, with a whole lot of fun and a whole lot of outdoors, and our group is particularly well-known for our skills in the area of hiking. We would hope that young people going through scouting are enjoying themselves, getting a good deal of entertainment, but also that they are preparing themselves for life and building important skills, a lot of which they wouldn’t get at home or in school."