Beszédes Lajos Leader Training Centre

It is the educational base of the Hungarian Scout Association in Slovakia (SZMCS-ZSMN). Its primary purpose is to preserve, transmit and develop traditions and values of the Hungarian Scout Movement through the activities held between the walls of the institution. The Ivánka Castle with its area and the Scout Park belonging to the land register of Plášťovce are also parts of the Centre. The Scout Park carries the name of Lajos Beszédes since 1994, later, according to the decision of the Scout Council of the Association, the whole Leader Training Centre in Plášťovce put on the same name. 

 

The institution´s home base is the Ivánka Castle which has been serving the Scout Movement since 1992. Its ceremonial consecration was on 3 July 1994. The SZMCS-ZSMN got the building in 1999 for permanent use for a 50-year period and they have been developing it in accordance with their educational goals. During the past few years, renovation and developments on the Ivánka Castle were carried out with the help of our volunteer scout members and supporters and also thanks to the many different aids. The building standing on the Castle´s courtyard serves as the home of the 9th Scout Troop of Szent György in Plášťovce under the name of Turul. On the area, there is a scout memorial column, a pine from the Verecke Pass, a memorial cross, a campfire, a summerhouse and a kiln. 

 

The Leader Training Centre is financed from own resources, tenders, donations and other financial resources and kept up by volunteer work. In the periods between educational activities in favour of utilizing and sustaining the educational base, the Centre welcomes guests during the whole year. The building has a capacity to accommodate 50 people. The Centre also has a central kitchenette and a parlour. In the courtyard, camping is possible for 10 to15 people at their own risk.

 

 

He was an outstanding personality of the Hungarian Subdivision of the former Czechoslovak Scout Association, he has organized and led Central Hungarian Scout Leader Training (since 1934) between the two world wars in the former Slovakia. In Komárno, he was one of the first leaders of Hungarian scout troops in Slovakia and later he became a versatile leader of the Hungarian Scout Movement in Slovakia. He was an inside worker of the Hungarian scout newspapers in Slovakia. In 1945, he emigrated to the west where he joined the Hungarian Scout Association in Exteris and later the American Scout Movement.  Since 2000, the SZMCS-ZSMN gives a Beszédes Lajos Worthy Leader Medallion to every scout leader performing outstanding work within the Association.