Eva Polanská

"These days, the kids sit at their computers all the time, they don't do any sports... Scouting gives people a greater perspective and makes them tougher – it's very important that they are brothers and sisters. It can mean a lot to them in their life to realize that they are not alone in this world. I wish them perseverance. I hope they won't have to go through what we had to: we were tested two or three times – and our characters were proven in the test!"

"Scout law was the law for us! And we strictly obeyed it. That is why I later could not really accept some of the young people since they didn't obey it as we had. For us it was... There was no way anybody could break the law. Even though the vow itself only took a short while I think it directly strengthened our characters. I always wished children would attend the Scout because it would help them find the right balance in their life. We used to know a boy who was entirely ousted from his family and after he spent some time with us in Polanka he completely recovered. Later he would work as a janitor in a girl's school.

"I remember that we fought against the boys in the following way: they set out to steal our flag from the main tent at night and we set out to do the same to them. They didn't manage to get it but we stole theirs because the boys were lazy and they slept. We simply ambushed them and took the flag. It was kind of a night expedition. I also remember one more game we used to play at night. Everybody had a knife, not a big dagger or anything like that, just a pocket knife. During the night game we went along a hillside pathway completely in the dark and everybody had to go to a certain spot and stab the knife in it. That way you could see how far that person had come. We had our principles – to speak the truth... It was quite adventurous. I remember that a lot of kids learned to not be afraid and they got tougher, so to speak. It was nice."