IT offers adventure for boys and girls who promise to do their best, and new figures reveal the membership of Scottish Scouts is climbing faster than the rest of the UK.
The organisation has revealed a 3% increase in new youth membership in Scotland for 2010, in contrast to a 1.8% UK growth in new membership numbers for the same year.
The figures come a day after it was revealed that more girls than boys are now joining the Scouts in some parts of the UK. In Scotland, 416 of the 1125 new members who joined last year were girls, representing 37% of the Scouting intake.
Scouting in the UK has now passed the half-million mark, with membership reaching 507,867 this year.
The Highlands and Islands recorded the strongest growth in new members in the UK with a 12% increase in membership for 2010, while Argyll and Lochaber were placed joint third in the UK districts table.
The Western Isles and Ross and Sutherland also featured in the top 10 districts for growth across the UK.
Eleanor Lyall MBE, the chief commissioner of Scouting in Scotland, said: “We’re delighted that Scout groups and districts in rural areas in Scotland have achieved among the highest growth figures in the UK for Scouting.
“This reflects the dedication and commitment of our volunteers to making Scouting as widely available as possible to young people across the country.”
Although new girl members are not outnumbering boys in Scotland, the Scottish Scout organisation confirmed that new female members made up 41% of the total membership increase in the last five years.
Although girls have been part of the Scout movement since 1976, it wasn’t until 2007 that the organisation became fully co-educational.
Christina Sheffield, a 15-year-old Scout from Aviemore, said she joined the organisation for adventure. She said: “I went to the Brownies once when I was little but it was too girly for me. I preferred the adventure and the activities of the Scouts.
“The boys and girls all get on, it’s mixed in our unit, everyone’s really friendly.”
The surge in membership has been matched by an increase in adult volunteers, although officials say more are needed.
Jenny Steven, Scottish commissioner for Explorer Scouts, said: “We still need more volunteers – obviously adults are incredibly busy nowadays and both mothers and fathers work full-time. However, I’ve been volunteering for 14 years now, since my two sons were young, and it has been vastly rewarding and fun.
“Nowadays there’s a lot more equality among children, so it’s great that the girls get to have the same adventures as the boys. It helps with social interaction as well and they all get on.”
Although the number of female Scouts has increased, the number of Girl Guides remained consistent in 2010.
A Girlguiding Scotland spokesman said: “We have seen no decrease in our membership figures, which at the end of 2010 stood at around 57,000 in Scotland and 524,528 in the UK. We also have 44,000 girls and young women across the UK waiting to join in the fun of guiding.”
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