While most kids settle back for a summer of cartoons, trips to the arcade and summer blockbusters, the first Shelly Bay scout group have taken to the woods.

In an exercise to promote team work, responsibility and self-sufficiency, seven boys have camped out every weekend, rain or shine, at a camp site they constructed themselves down to string beds, casuarina tables and a mud covered "biscuit tin'' stove.

So sophisticated is the camp that taxi drivers have asked group scout leader Mr. Harrison Isaac to leave it intact because it has already become a drawing card for visitors.

But this is just a preliminary step to taking part in the World Scout Jamboree in Amsterdam this August to be attended by 28,000 scouts from all over the world. For many of the boys, the trip, which also features London and Paris, will be their first ever to Europe.

So when faced with the possibility of getting lost in foreign-tongued cities, the boys need to know how to take care of themselves and find their way around.

So far, the scouts have covered most of the cost through "trash-a-thons'', bake sales, car washes and grocery packing. To raise the remainder, they will be selling and delivering food products until July 24, a percentage of which will go toward the trip.

"Teamwork is the bottom line,'' said Mr. Isaac who founded the group when he was just 17 -- the youngest Commonwealth scout to achieve such a feat.

"Going overseas there is a real need for teamwork. The boys have to understand that one boy's action reflects on the whole group. Camping they learn that teamwork brings food, ideas and equipment.'' The boys aged 10 to 12 mostly come from the Island's less affluent neighbourhoods. In camp, away from the distractions of TV and video games they learn how to construct things out of casuarina branches, make knots, create hinges from tin cans and bake all sorts of goodies in a mud covered oven they built themselves.

Following a presentation to the Audubon Society, Agriculture and Fisheries Parks Division and the National Trust, the group were allowed to carve out a small niche among the grasses of the Somerset Long Bay Nature Reserve and set up camp.

"The only condition was that we weren't allowed to kill any ducks,'' laughed Mr. Isaac. "So duck a l'orange was off the menu.'' But otherwise the boys ate well with a fare of Cornish hen, beef stew, eggs and bacon, whole wheat rolls and "melting moments'' chocolate chip cookies all of which they cooked themselves.

One meal they were told they would have to catch themselves.

Scouts learning about living rough A local professional fishing guide volunteered advice and showed them how to dig for cockworm -- tasty bait found in the sand at Somerset Long Bay. The result -- a two-foot fish caught by ten-year-old boy scout Colin Outerbridge.

"Our belief is that a boy can come off the street and become a scout,'' Mr.

Isaac said. "We feel this is an opportunity to teach boys how to live together without the conveniences of home.'' Next month's cultural exchange trip to Europe is about expanding the boys' horizons.

"Many of the things we hear about the world on the news are bad but there are other things in the world that happen that we never know about. They need to know these things,'' Mr. Isaac said.

Another aim is to make new friends overseas.

The trip itself has been made feasible through the hospitality of scouting families which have invited the boys to stay -- a favour Bermuda scouts return for groups visiting Bermuda.

"It's amazing what comes out of scouting,'' Mr. Isaac said. "I have friends all over the world. There are thousands that I can call.'' Anyone who would like to support the Scouts' final fund raising effort should call 236-6277, 293-2713, 293-3383 or 293-0205.

COOKING UP A STORM -- 10-year-old Jonathan Outerbridge prepares to bake his mouth watering chocolate-chip cookies in a mud-covered "biscuit tin'' oven built by the First Shelly Bay Scout Group. The seven-boy team have been camping out every weekend this month under the supervision of group scout leader Mr. Harrison Isaac at Somerset Long Bay Nature Reserve.