After eight years of hard work, Sunbury’s Jarrod Bell has earned the highest Scout award available to a young person – the Baden Powell Award.
Mr Bell, who is part of the 1st Sunbury Scouts group, received the award last weekend, recognising his dedication to the Scouts and his community. He is only the second Sunbury-based Scout to receive the award, with the last one handed out in 1997.
To achieve the award, Mr Bell had to earn six badges, which required him to volunteer in the community, complete a course to foster personal growth, take on a leadership role and complete a journey with four others over four days in challenging and unknown terrain.
The badges had to be earned before his 26th birthday.
Mr Bell said he nearly missed out on the award after the Auslan course he signed up to was cancelled at the last minute.
However, he was able to enrol in another course a few months later and completed all the badges with just days to spare.
“I wanted to finish my Scouting on something big, I want to go out on a high and do something worthy of the next level,” he said.
Mr Bell has been part of Scouts for 20 years, after joining as a Joey when he was six.
“I think Scouting offers a whole different level of learning opposed to other youth-based groups, and offers young people the opportunity to volunteer and give back,” he said.
“I have abseiled down mountains, I’ve canoed down the Murray and rafted down the Goulburn. The opportunities I have had through Scouts is why I stuck around.”
