DRIVEN and motivated, nothing could stop eight-year-old Balian Williamson from getting the highest award available to Joey Scouts.
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Sitting on the couch unable to do much after badly spraining his ankle a few months ago, Balian, who has been part of 3rd Orange Scouts since he was six, decided he wanted to complete the Promise Challenge.
“I needed to talk about Baden Powell when he started Scouts and what Baden Powel did. I also needed to do community service, which I went to Blossoms Rescue to do,” Balian said.
“I also had to write about different parts of Scouts, I had to write a prayer and talk about why they pray at each meeting.”
Balian received his award at a Joey fun day, held at the Adventure Playground in April.
Also 3rd Orange Cub Scouts Morgan Brown and Liddian Selwood, both 11 years old, received the highest award for their age group, Cub Scouts, called the Grey Wolf award.
Morgan said it took 12 months to finish all of the components of the award, but said it was good to have her friend Liddian by her side so they could “cheer each other on”.
“On one side we had to do things like outdoor skills, Scout history and basic first aid, and on the other side we had to complete eight achievement badges like sculpture, nature and sport,” Morgan said.
Liddian said one of the big challenges of the award was hiking through the Mount Canobolas sate conservation area.
“We had to do lots of arts and crafts and we also had to do the Federal Falls walk at Mount Canobolas. It was good to have Morgan there,” Liddian said.
Morgan said pushing herself to complete the Grey Wolf award taught her compass and map reading skills, as well as pushing her out of her comfort zone.
“Scouting gave me a bit more courage, focus and taught me to try new things,” she said.