100 Years of Scouting

Scouting started in 1907, with an experimental camp on Brownsea Island in the UK for 20 boys from a wide variety of social backgrounds. This saw the start of what has become the largest youth organisation in the world with more than 28 million scouts in 216 countries and territories. By 2007 it is estimated that more than 500 000 000 women and men from most countries and cultures in the world will have promised to live by the Scout Promise and Law.

Today, Scouting is more than a million times bigger than when it first started. It involves girls and boys, men and women from every race, religion and culture, and nearly every country in the world. Scouting not allowed in China

In 2007, Scouting celebrates its worldwide Centenary. This is an opportunity to promote the values, benefits and achievements of Scouting to the world, and also for the millions of Scouts around the world to make a real difference to the lives of others through their Centenary activities. 2007 also marks the 150th anniversary of the birth of the founder Lord Robert Baden-Powell who was born on 22 February 1857.

The single theme for all events and activities for the Centenary of Scouting and the 21st World Scout Jamboree is: 2007: One World One Promise.

The 2007 World Scout Task Force, composed of representatives of World Scouting and of Scouting 2007, is leading the planning to realise this vision and help Scouts around the world make the 100th Anniversary objectives a reality:

To celebrate 100 years of Scouting
To demonstrate the unity of World Scouting
To improve and promote the quality of Scouting
To promote peace
To demonstrate the unique value of Scouting
To provide enjoyable and beneficial experiences
To demonstrate a commitment to nature and the environment
To show concern for all communities

This will be achieved through three main groups of Centenary Activities:

1. Worldwide Centenary Programmes, which link together Scouts globally in their home countries to promote peace and justice through shared activities and celebrations. These include Gifts for Peace, Join-in-Centenary, and Scouting’s Sunrise.
2. World Centenary Events, which bring together Scouts from countries around the world to a common location to take part in activities and programmes to promote international friendship and understanding. These include the 21st World Scout Jamboree, the International Congress in Geneva, and the Brownsea Island Sunrise Camp.
3. National and Local Celebrations, which celebrate Scouting’s local history and bring together communities to help make the world a better place. A wide range of National 2007 Activities are planned.

Scouts from nearly every country in the world will travel to Brownsea Island from the 21st World Scout Jamboree at Hylands Park as a key part of the Centenary Celebration. These Scouts will represent the hopes of the world as they show how it is possible to live together in peace.　

International Events in 2007
An International Congress on the contribution of 100 years of Scouting to non-formal education will be held in Geneva.

21st World jamboree will be held in Hylands Park Essex England from 27 July to 8 August. Sunrise Ceremony will take place on 1 August throughout the world and on Brownsea Island. Scouts from all WOSM countries will celebrate the dawn of a new century of Scouting by renewing their promise 100 years from the day when Baden Powell ran the first Scout camp on Brownsea Island. Starting from with the scouts living nearest to the International Date Line sweeping westwards round the globe through to Alaska and back to the date line again, as the sun rises.

Scouts will welcome our second century and renew their Promise. Each Region has been encouraged to co-ordinate at least one event

The new commemorative 50p coin marks the 100th anniversary of the Scout Movement. It depicts the traditional Scouting fleur-de-lys and appropriately features the words “Be Prepared”. Endorsed by The Scout Association.

2,393,685 Trees and Growing!
At the half way mark of 2007, Scouts and Guides around the world have already pledged to plant 2,393,685 trees through the UNEP Billion Trees campaign. Scouts have been very active in planting trees to help to provide habitat for wildlife, improve the environment of their local communities, enhance water quality and to store carbon to reduce the effects of climate change.

The Billion Trees Campaign creates an opportunity to demonstrate around the world one of the ways in which Scouting plays an active part in caring for the environment (one of the Scout laws). Planting trees can have many positive impacts on the environment including providing food and habitat for wildlife, cleaning the air, reducing soil erosion, helping to purify water, storing carbon and helping to reduce global warming and improving the general appearance of the landscape.

See also: Smith, M. K. (1997; 2002) “Robert Baden-Powell as an educational innovator”, the encyclopedia of informal education: www.infed.org/thinkers/et-bp.htm