“In 1945, there was a huge boom in Scouting. Everybody wanted to do it. Because all the kids that wanted to be in some youth organizations that were nonexistent during the war now joined the Scout. In 1945, I was 22 years old and I was expected, well we were all expected to not only be Scouts but also Scout leaders. So I asked for the only Scout position in all of my life because afterwards, I have always been elected to positions. I came to brother Komárek who was a group leader and told him that I would like to become a leader. He appreciated it but told me that I had to find the boys first. So I got together a group of boys from the suburbs of Prague and from the city. We gave ourselves the number 35 and that’s how the 35th troop was created. It still exists today
“However, in 1970 when it was dissolved, we unfortunately lost all of our property. We were really upset about it because they took everything they could from us. They took our clubhouses and they occupied our Scouting houses. We had built a huge wooden house Na Rybárně and we solemnly opened it in 1969. We were eager to have a nice base and then came 1970 and they took it all away. The same thing happened in other places as well. The Scouts in Kukleny were deprived of their house as well. The same thing happened to the Scouts in Šimkovy sady who lost their rotunda. Suddenly we had nothing again.”
“Once I wanted to try if our Scout methods worked with so-called ‘guilty’ youth, which basically meant young delinquents. I invited a young man from Brno aged 14 – 15, who had committed a criminal act to one of our summer camps. I met him in court – he was ordered to come to one of our camps. He was kind of restless and a bit primitive. He had a weaker social background and an incomplete family. His mom was divorced and had lost one arm so they had a bit of a hard life. He came to our camp and got involved in our activities. He was a fun guy and he tried to everything we did. In his spare time, he would wander around the surrounding forests. The camp was in Vysoké Žibřidovice and it was shortly after the end of the war in 1947 or 1948. It was quite usual to find lots of weapons and ammunition like hand grenades, rifles and machine guns lying around in the forests. The Germans had left it there when they were retreating from the area at the end of the war. The forests around Kralický Sněžník were deep and poorly explored by then. We knew that there were explosives in the forests and we therefore forbid the boys to go there. But he wouldn’t listen to anyway us and walked in the forest all the time. One day – it was around noon – they boys started shouting ‘brother, brother, he’s coming from the forest and he’s got something in his hands’. He was carrying two hand grenades in each hand. He had found it somewhere in the forest and he laid it down next to my tent. I told him to bring it away but he wouldn’t take it in his hand anymore because the boys had told him that it was dangerous. He told me to do what I could with it. So I ordered the boys to leave the camp, asked my assistant to help me and we carried the grenades out of the camp. We put them in a place outside of the camp and had a guard patrol them from a safe distance. Then we sent one boy to the local police station in Staré Město pod Sněžníkem. In about two hours the police came and safely detonated the explosives. It was a very loud bang. After he had seen this, that boy realized what could have happened and the smile disappeared from his face.”
“Franta Bahník was the counselor in the first troop – it was the seagulls. It was a good time for me there because Franta Bahník was a very able young man, a true Scout leader. He had talent and was universally skillful. He was also good at sports and was a non-smoker. He was strict in this respect. When I was about thirteen or fourteen years old, I was trying to smoke like all the others. But Franta Bahník told us that those who wanted to be in his group would not be allowed to smoke. We were so impressed with him that we gave it up. Since then, I haven’t had a cigarette in my mouth.”
Zdeněk Šandera was born September 8th, 1923 in Hradec Králové. When he was a kid, he joined the Sokol (“Falcon” - the Czech mutation of the Scout) and thanks to his mom, he was able to take part in a Cub Scout rally for the first time in 1932. He liked the Cub Scouts but the real Scouting started when he joined the 1st troop led by Alois Vanický. He was a member of the Seagull patrol and his patrol advisor was Franta Bahník. Besides being active in the Scout, Zdeněk also played the trumpet in the Scout band. The band performed at various rallies and meetings of the Scouts. Once they even played at a rally attended by A. B. Svojsík. In 1945, when the Czechs regained their freedom, Scouting became immensely popular with young boys. Many new units were created and new leaders were in demand. Zdeněk was 22 years old by then and he immediately started to organize a new unit, the 35th troop in Hradec Králové. The unit is still in existence today. To become a formal leader, he passed the leadership examination and participated in the newly created forest school that had been founded by Milota Fanderlik. Shortly after the creation of the new troop, he became the leader of the newly established center. Unfortunately, the freedom didn’t last for long and he was forbidden to lead the troop a well as the center. After the banning of the Scout in 1950, Zdeněk became engaged in volleyball and became the coach of girl players in Hradec Králové. In 1968, when the regime was relaxed a little bit, the Junák (another Czech equivalent of the Scout) was renewed and fully expanded its activities. Zdeněk Šandera, nicknamed “Shark”, was elected the chairman of the regional council. The Scout councils expanded quickly but 1970 meant an end to all Scout activities as the organization was banned again. Shark took up his position as volleyball coach again. In 1989, all Scouts were ready and immediately took up their former positions. Scouting could finally unfold in Czechoslovakia. Šandera - Shark was active in many Scout positions. He was the chairman of the regional council, a member of the central council of the Junák and the leader of the conciliation council of the Junák. He also worked as an instructor in the forest schools. In 2002, he authored a textbook titled „Psychology for leaders”. He was also a member of the troop of honor of A. B. Svojsík. He was many times awarded for his contribution to Scouting. Shark was one of those Scouts who feel that what they need to pass on what they were taught in the Scout. He was always ready to unselfishly give without expecting anything in return. He devoted his life to the education of children and youth, trying to build a responsible society that would not be indifferent to its environment. Zdeněk “Shark” Šandera died in 2004 aged 81.
