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Merit Awards for Solihull Scout County Jamboree Supporters

On Wednesday 9 th January 2008 the Mayor, Gary Allport and his wife Gail, attended a presentation evening for adult Scout leaders, helper and parents from the Solihull Scout County who were involved recent Scout Jamboree.

Click here to see pictures of awards presented

To celebrate 2007 the centenary year of Scouting required a huge amount of effort by adults to support the young peoples' participation in many events both locally and nationally. The cost to send the Solihull contingent to the World Scout Jamboree in Essex (where the youngsters were to join with 40,000 scouts and guides from around the world) was a staggering £45,000 . This was raised over a 15 month period by a dedicated group of leaders, parents and the young people themselves.

There was a second group of adults working within Scouting in Solihull who chose to join the IST (International Service Team. These people worked hard on the sites supporting on site supermarkets, medical centres, activities and cleaning out toilets and washrooms and clearing up rubbish. They had to pay for the privilege and give up annual holidays to attend.

A third group was the Home Hospitality (HoHo) group. This group worked hard in Solihull to provide an enjoyable experience for Scouts from Switzerland and Holland. They organised accommodation with families around the Borough and also with Scout Groups in Central Solihull and put in a huge effort with a grand spectacular get-together “Minijam” at Millpool. They also organised trips to Black Country Museum and trips on Canal Boats

The final group is the team of 5 leaders who took responsibility for the young people throughout the whole of the period from selection in early 2006 and continued beyond the Jamboree in 2007 to provide presentations into 2008. They worked with all of the groups above to ensure that the youngsters were able to gain full potential from the whole of the experience.

The picture shows the mayor presenting a certificate and merit award to Steve OGrady, the contingent leader.

The new merit badge