2022: A great year for Scouts in Buckinghamshire

2022 was a great year for Scouts across the whole of Buckinghamshire.

The year started with an increase of 6 to 18 year olds being involved in Scouts. This was quickly followed by the opening of some Squirrel Dreys (boys and girls aged 4 and 5) and the return of endurance events which involved a 10km hike for Cubs (boys and girls aged 8 to 10) and a 40km hike for Scouts (boys and girls aged 10 to 14).

Shortly afterwards, an orienteering event took place in Wendover Woods. With team and individual events, this was a great success with route-finding skills and observation being the key to finishing in excellent times.

A Beaveree (boys and girls aged 6 to 8) was also very successful attracting over 800 children. The children had the opportunity to climb, abseil, do some crafts, go on inflatables and in zorbs. Other activities included a string trail, water rockets and face painting.

Two sleepovers at the National Space Centre were held towards the end of 2022. Over 500 Beavers attended these with plenty of time to visit different parts of the Centre, plus planetarium shows and some team work all went down very well.

A ‘top awards’ event was also held where children, young, people and adults were presented with the top award for the section they are involved with. These included Chief Scout Awards, Duke of Edinburgh Awards and Awards for length of service and good service.

There were many Groups who went camping and had sleepovers. Some of these sleepovers were in Group HQs whereas others were in museums and on boats.

Look forward to 2023, there are already teams registered for the Endurance events and two sleepovers at Conkers have been arranged. Fifty-four Explorer Scouts (boys and girls aged 14 to 17) and six brilliant volunteers are going to the World Scout Jamboree in Korea. They will meet up with 50,000 Scouts from nearly every country in the world. Another 50 Explorer Scouts visiting six countries in Europe as part of their Grand Tour.

One of the key goals for 2023 is to offer more children and young people the experience of Scouting. Hundreds of children and young people are already on joining lists and volunteers are being sought to help give them experiences they would not get elsewhere.

Further information about becoming a volunteer, including information about your son or daughter joining, can be found on the Scouts website at www.scouts.org.uk/join.

*Source of article : Press release from Buckinghamshire Scouts.