Turuls in Sarasota – Hungarian Scouts in Florida

The engines start working, the plane starts taking off.  There are two turuls perching next to each other. They have been waiting for this journey for a long time. They can finally fly. They are looking at the city below while taking off. New York shines in beautiful lights and looks much better from above than from the ground. The turuls are facing 2 hours of travelling to arrive at the Hungarian Festival in Sarasota – this is how Mikolt Tózsa starts her report.

On one hand, the team development project of Hungarian Scouts in Exteris (KMCSSZ) explore the needs for Hungarian Scouts all over the world. On the other, the organisation helps fresh initiatives and supports them until the formation. A scout troop becomes official, it is given a name first, then a troop number. But there is a long way until this happens. They have to fit some criterions. One of them is the obligatory use of Hungarian language, to have at least 12 members and that the team leader must be a scoutmaster who has already turned 21, and, finally, to organise regular workshops with a reliable sustaining syndicate behind them.

Forming a scout troop does not happen in a day. The most important steps are designating and training the right leaders, and gathering children. Then comes the forming of the sustaining syndicate, which can be a Hungarian organisation, church, or it can consist simply of the scouts’ parents. But those who are willing to undertake this venturous task are not alone! Tamás Marshall, team development scoutmaster of KMCSSZ makes sure that everyone gets the help they need. Assistance is one of the most important parts of organising Turul journeys.

It means that the scoutmaster chooses scout leaders based on local requests. These people hold sample workshops, parent-conferences, leader trainings and different programs in a certain location. They are called Turul. Turul, as the symbol of the Hungarian conquest of the Carpathian Basin, take the new groups under their wings, and do everything to make it be the part of the homeland.

Every Hungarian community needs different kind of help. The troop in Sarasota is very new; they were formed only two years ago. Their first difficulty after the foundation was the question of raising their replacement. The Turuls (Tamás Vajtay, Csilla Tábor and Mikolt Emese Tózsa) helped them by organising recruitment. The Hungarian Festival gave a perfect possibility to reach the children and the parents. The number 9 “Jámbor Lajos” scout troop went out to the festival with two tents, where they set up a sample camp and a playground. Children were coming here from the whole area of the festival, and they definitely stopped by if they could play and win some presents.

The next difficulty for the troop in Sarasota comes from its geographical position. On one hand, the troop is far away from the other troops of their district, on the other hand its climate does not make it possible to organise summer camps. The weather is so hot in the summer here that it makes hiking and sleeping outside impossible. The troop belongs to the New York district, where the troops of Washington DC, New York, Garfield, New Brunswick, Boston and Wallingford work. The nearest scout troop is in Washington, 1,600 kilometres away from Sarasota.