The 1st BX Scout Group held a Chief Scout Award celebration recently for seven of their youth group.
The kids were piped in, RCMP in red surge, and youth receive high school credits for their award as well.
”It’s a big deal,” said Shawna Bader of the BX Scout Group.
Created in 1973 after the orifran was divided into the Scout and Venturer sections, the Chief Scout Award is the highest award that can be achieved at the scout level in Canada. To earn the award, the Scout must earn the Voyageur and Pathfinder Activity Awards which require the Scout to develop citizenship, leadership, personal development and outdoor skills, as well as earn ten Challenge badges, at least one in each of the seven categories (athletics, outdoors, home and family, personal development, science and technology, culture and society, and environment), they must, in addition, hold current qualifications in Standard First Aid, hold the World Scout Environment Badge, investigate and present findings on Scouts Canada’s involvement in World Scouting, design a challenging programme which will require the Scout to excel in each of the four activity areas (Citizenship, Leadership, Personal Development, and Outdoor Skills), including at least 30 hours of additional leadership to others.
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This award represents multiple years of efforts in scouting, volunteering and a culminating community project from each recipient.
Cooper Whitefield ran a food drive for the Salvation Army’s House of Hope.
“I went around my neighbourhood, collecting non-perishable food items,” he wrote in his posting about the project. “After 6 hours of work, I ended up with two full shopping carts worth of food. The people volunteering at the Salvation Army were very excited to see the big donation, so I feel I have really helped the community.”
Jessica Bader organized a work party helping at the soup kitchen at the Vernon Upper Room Mission. As part of her project, third-year scouts helped cook and serve food, clean tables and organize storage.
“I organized a day for the scouts to help in February by contacting the kitchen manager. The day was a great success, and I was pleased with the final outcome,” she added.
Brendan Hamm took a more artistic approach by going Polson extended care and the Hamlets and singing some songs for the elderly.
“On April 16, we went and sang for the wise with age people and they all loved it. Thanks to all the scouts that came and helped sing,” Hamm said.
Bethanee Prevett’s project consisted of designing, printing and distributing flyers for the Vernon SPCA. She received a total donation amount of an about $150 dollars.
Mac Clark created a website for the Vernon PC Users Club, a club that teaches people over 50 how to be safe online and stay current with technology. She began working on the project in November and launched the website in May.
Kris Creighton conducted a community clean-up in Armstrong. She, alongside 21 other volunteers, collected over 13 bags of garbage.
“It was a great day and I feel good about my project making Armstrong a cleaner community,” Creighton wrote.
Sophie Kitching collected socks for those in need and donated them to Common Threads, Vernon Alliance Church’s outreach program. She was able to collect 192 pairs of socks and donated them to the Church in May.
“I feel like I helped the community because now those in need can, too, have happy feet,” she added.
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