On April 8, the 1st Belwood Scouts awarded Gregory Smith, of Belwood, the Chief Scout Award.
That is the highest honour that can be achieved by a Scout. It was also the first time that the award has been given to anyone in the 33 year history of the Belwood Scouts.
A number of Scouting officials attended the presentation of the award to Smith. They included Scouter Basil Laugier (a Queen Scout), Group Commissioner Julian Vines, Scouter Jamie Arnold (also a Chief Scout), and Mark Woodfine (a chief Scout) of Tack Two Emergency Medical Services Inc. of Belwood.
“You need certain badges and awards to become a Chief Scout,” Laugier said in an interview last week.
He added that his own Chief Scout rank had been earned in Trinidad, and that Smith is the only local member of the Belwood troop to earn the designation.
According to Wikipedia, the Chief Scout’s award is the highest award that can be achieved at the Scout level in Scouts Canada.
It was inaugurated in 1973 by then Governor General of Canada Roland Michener. The Governor General, being the Canadian monarch’s representative in Canada, is also the Chief Scout of Canada. The award was created to provide recognition for Scouts when the program was divided into the Scout and Venturer sections.
In order to earn the award a Scout must earn the Voyageur and Pathfinder activity awards which require him 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).
The Scout must, in addition, hold current qualifications in standard First Aid, hold the World Conservation Badge, investigate and present findings on Scouts Canada’s involvement in World Scouting, design a challenging program 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 service to others (above those required in the citizenship activity area of the Voyageur and Pathfinder awards).
In working towards the Chief Scout’s award, the Scout will have performed over 30 hours of service in the community, much of it self-directed.
Additional work on the World Conservation Badge exposes a Chief Scout’s award candidate to the many environmental issues of today, and they have taken an active role in promoting those issues with the public.
Chief Scout’s award candidates amass more than 100 kilometers in hiking camps and they spend time as trainers helping their fellow Scouts work on their own badge levels. Smith, now 15, said he began with the local Scout troupe when he moved to Belwood in 2005. He has earned over 20 badges in the course of his four years. He added his age makes him eligible to move up to the next age level, but he said he will likely stay with the Boy Scouts for one more year. (The age levels overlap).
Smith likes learning about the outdoors and he is an apprentice hunter. He added that another nice thing about the movement is, “You get to make a lot of friends.”
The Scout Motto, ‘Be Prepared’, has been used in various languages by millions of Scouts since 1907.
The Scout method is a system designed to achieve those goals, comprising seven elements: law and promise, learning by doing, team system, symbolic framework, personal progression, nature, and adult support.
Small groups build unity, camaraderie, and a close-knit fraternal atmosphere. These experiences, along with an emphasis on trustworthiness and personal honor, help to develop responsibility, character, self-reliance, self-confidence, reliability, and readiness; which eventually lead to collaboration and leadership.
The Belwood Scouts are sponsored by St John’s United Church, of Belwood, and the Belwood Lions Club.
