Celebration of St George by Scout group

Held at Icknield High school all the Scouts paraded their colours around the school grounds before settling down to a short service.

Rev Janet Mckenzie narrated a re-enactment of the St George and the dragon story using members of the Scouts as actors.

An Icknield District spokesman said: “St George is the patron saint of scouting and we in Luton celebrated by holding a parade through the town centre dispersing to various churches, but times have changed and now to give the event a parade atmosphere the school grounds are used with all marching into the hall, the salute being taken by the District commissioner Martin Wesley.”

The groups colours were received by the Mayor of Luton. Other guests included Kelvin Hopkins MP and commissioners representing the Guide movement.

Six Chief Scout gold awards were presented, the highest award a Scout can gain. Five wood badges, presented to leaders on completion of their leader training were handed out to Helen Mann, Teresa Loughborough, David Gilkinson, Ash Chambers and Nicki Chambers. Long service awards of 5 years for Amanda Jenkins and 25 years each for Alan and Barbara Wood.

As a conclusion to the afternoon the young people were invited to join in with a number of invigorating activities including the Cubs enjoying a selection of fairground side-show activities. Beavers had great fun joining together and playing with parachutes whilst the Scouts 7 Explorers had an orienteering style course in groups of three, one being blindfolded.

Organiser Martin Wesley said: “I was pleased with the good turnout and the impressive fact of so many Chief Scout’s awards being presented. Each section then had a variety of activities to enjoy and it was great to see so many members of different groups mixing together and getting involved.”

To find out more about Scouting in Luton see www.lutonscouts.org.