Two very young scouts have received the highest award.

Two Beavers have earned the Chief Scout’s Bronze Award this term. They are only the second and third Beavers from the 1st Dartmouth Scout Group to have achieved the award. This is the highest award it is possible to earn as a Beaver Scout and the District

Beavers are children who are 6 or 7 years old. On their 8th birthday they move to the scouts.

The Commissioner made a special visit to present the badges and certificates.

The Beaver Scouts in Dartmouth are limited to a colony size of 12 Beavers at present due to a lack of leaders which means currently, they have a two year waiting list for places and very few are able to start on time.

If they are able to find an Assistant Leader (or even better a few to share the responsibility) they could expand to a colony of 18 Beavers which would reduce the waiting list considerably.

Laura Howell, Leader of the Beaver Scouts, ’Foxglove’ to her charges, said: "Being a leader is great fun and if any of your readers would like more information about getting involved they can contact me on [email protected]”.

To earn the Bronze Award, the Beavers need to complete four activity or staged activity badges and all six challenge badges.

The activity badges are easier to earn, typically with around five fairly simple requirements. For example this term the Beavers have worked on the Communicator Activity badge which required the Beavers to learn:

-their phone number;

-learn how to make a phone call;

-learn how to send a text message or email;

-spell their name using a code e.g. picture code, phonetic alphabet semaphore; and work out a message given to them in code.

Some staged activity badges have a few requirements that become more involved as you go up the levels, others such as Hikes Away, Nights Away and Time on the Water show how many of a particular activity the young person has completed.

The staged activity badges run all the way through from Beavers, through Cubs to Scouts.

The aim is that every Beaver will have the chance to earn their Chief Scout’s Bronze award before they move up to Cubs, however, if they don’t spend a full 2 years with the Beaver Scouts this becomes more difficult.