One day in August 1907 a group of boys from London and Bournemouth arrived for a camp on Brownsea Island, just off the Dorset coast. It was the idea of a man called Robert Baden-Powell. He arranged the boys into 4 patrols and they spent their time learning many outdoor skills. Afterwards Baden-Powell was persuaded to write his famous book "Scouting for Boys", which is the fourth best selling book of all time. He cannot have imagined that his idea of "scouting" would grow and survive into the 21^st Century.

21^st World Jamboree. This will take place at Hylands Park, Chelmsford from 27^th July to 8^th August. There will be 40,000 scouts attending from almost every country in the world. 19 sub-camps will deliver a programme with such topics as Global Development, World Villages (Aquaville and Terraville) where scouts will discover about various cultures, traditions, arts, music, dance, foods and cuisine (burnt offerings maybe !) and scouting in different countries. Water activities are catered for with "Splash" which is being held at Alton Reservoir in Suffolk. This alone will require 1,100 instructors and other volunteer staff in order to cope with some 4,000 scout users per day. Participants will also be able to visit Gilwell Park, the spiritual home of scouting and the UK Headquarters. Here there will be adventure based themes such as Discovery, Motion, Mountain, Challenge Valley and Scouting Skills.

‘Starburst’ will enable each participant to undertake a community project. Each day, 4,000 young people will leave Hylands Park to work on a community project. In 2005 at the European Scout Jamboree, held on the same camp site, 1000 people a day undertook Starburst - they achieved some amazing results! Overgrown community gardens underwent a make-over; hundreds of bird boxes were assembled for the National Trust; a playground at a special needs school was transformed and the beach at Southend was cleaned up with the rubbish analysed to be returned to the makers... and these were just some of the projects.

The 1^st World Jamboree at London’s Olympia, was attended by 8,000 scouts from 34 countries. Now "Scouting" is available in 216 countries and has a world wide membership of 28 million. This shows the true world growth of scouting.

Scouting Sunrise. Centenary Day – 1^st August 2007. At 8 am local time, scouts all over the world will renew their promise. It is also the official commemoration of the first camp on Brownsea Island.

Brownsea Replica Camps. These 2 camps will run for 4 days either side of 1^st August. Each will have 20 scouts/explorer scouts and will run like the original camp of 1907. One of our ex-scouts, now an explorer scout, Christopher Thomas, has been fortunate to be accepted as an applicant on one of these camps. Just think, there will be 40,000 at the jamboree but only 40 at the replica camps. Well done Chris ! All your hard work and your scouting skills have rewarded you with a place on what should be a very memorable camp.

4^th Fulwood (Methodist) Scout Group. We are sponsored by the church, but are an open group. This means that anyone may join us. Indeed, we have had Baptist, Roman Catholic, Jewish and other faiths amongst our members. A couple of years ago the group took the decision to admit girls; and from 1^st January this year it has been national policy by the Scout Association. The group was formed in 1943 and is thus 64 years young this year. All our leaders are volunteers and between them give an enormous amount of time and energy to provide challenging and enjoyable programmes in order to stimulate our young people. Of course, it should also be FUN for young people and leaders alike.

So it would appear that Scouting is still relevant in this modern era. I know that young people have to enjoy what they are doing and that scouting must deliver something over and above youth clubs, after school clubs etc. We hear politicians talking about citizenship, faith, values, useful members of society etc. Well I think that quite a few organisations help to instil these attitudes into young people – Scouts, Guides, Boys Brigade, Duke of Edinburgh Award and many others. Each young person is an individual and what suits one may not suit another. In scouting we try and give a breadth of activities and interests so that it will appeal to as many as possible.

When the time comes, my thoughts will be with those at the World Jamboree. I won’t be there. With luck, my sunrise ceremony will be on a mountain or a glacier in the wilds of Ren Land in North East Greenland. It’ll be 8 am local time and I will be renewing my scout promise alongside millions all over the world.