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Gold Chief Scout Award  
 

    This badge is the highest award available in the Scout Section.


It is gained by completing:

The Promise Challenge
The Community Challenge
The Fitness Challenge
The Creative Challenge
The Global Challenge
The Outdoor Challenge
and two of the following:

The Outdoor Plus Challenge
The Adventure Challenge
The Expedition Challenge

 

Becoming a Gold Chief Scout

When I started at Scouts at the age of 10 and a half, getting 8 challenges badges seemed an impossible thing to do. How was I going to get the;

  • COMMUNITY Challenge
  • CREATIVE Challenge
  • ADVENTURE Challenge
  • PROMISE Challenge
  • FITNESS Challenge
  • OUTDOOR Challenge
  • EXPEDITION Challenge
  • GLOBAL Challenge
  • OUTDOOR PLUS Challenge??

What I found out, was that by being part of Cramond Scouts, and doing all the fun activities and camps, it was easier than I thought.

Here’s how it’s done.
In the summer term we often cycle, row on the union canal (well try to!), kayak, sail and powerboat. Last summer camp we explored a new town when we ‘hunted for points’ in Aberfeldy and last autumn, we crossed the river Almond by pulling a dinghy back and forward like a chain ferry, then did a survival camp in the Dalmeny Estate. All of this gets me the ADVENTURE CHALLENGE.

Last September we discovered how important trees were to lives of people in Africa. We played tree games to find out how useful trees were, and ‘played our cards right’ to know how much is cost to provide equipment, skills and training to plant and look after trees.

We decided to raise some money, and so we made cakes and had a Mocha Choca night – we had everything from Chocolate games to bakery, Chocolate Quiz to Deep fried mars bars! We raised an amazing £640 for Treeaid, and bought loads of stuff. This earned me the GLOBAL CHALLENGE.

Last spring we helped the historic conservation of the roman grounds, by digging old chippings out of some of the building boundary trenches and refilling them with new chippings. As an extra wee job, we rediscovered the path between the walled garden and the carpark – dug it out and filled that with chippings too!

In September working in with the Countyside Ranger , we cut back a lot of laurel and removed as much of the invasive Himilayan Balsa plant from the River Almond banks as we could. Both of these things meant I got my COMMUNITY CHALLENGE badge.

Taking part in the Youth Service, writing a prayer at Easter camp for our Scout Prayer book, reading a prayer at the end of a Scout night, and investing a new Scout all meant I got my PROMISE CHALLENGE

Summer camp is brilliant, being part of a patrol pitching a tent, cooking on a open fire, making camp gadgets, making a stove and cooking pizza, keeping our patrol site tidy. All that, and learning about some first aid meant I got my OUTDOOR CHALLENGE

Senior scouts get to go on an expedition. Last summer we set off with all our packs on our backs, our survival equipment and food, and climbed up the valley to find the source of the River Almond (a different one from our one tho!) We found a pool which was deep, so stripped off and jumped and splashed about. We decided to camp in a sheep fold, so used the dry stanedyke and our tarpaulins to provide shelter. We cooked tea on our camp stoves and sat round a campfire as the sun went down. In the morning, we packed up had breakfast and marched back to camp. This got me my EXPEDITION CHALLENGE

Doing my rugby training, and playing matches regularly, together with knowing about the harmful effects of smoking, drinking and drugs got me my FITNESS CHALLENGE

Coming up with, and performing a Dr Who sketch at camp, making our patrol signs, writing a prayer, and doing an incident hike got me my CREATIVE CHALLENGE

Leading my patrol in pitching our tent, and dining shelter – setting up our kitchen, and organising our patrol duties (cooking, washing up, litter) as well as taking the lead in a backwoods cooking, and pioneering projects are all part of this challenge. Making a bivouac and sleeping in it as well as some more first aid knowledge, all got me my OUTDOOR PLUS CHALLENGE

I’m now a GOLD CHIEF SCOUT!

And once I had my Gold Chief Scout, I could enter a competition to be one of 8 in the whole of the UK to go on a weekend survival camp with Bear Grylls - who is THE Chief Scout. ….I couldn’t believe it - I was selected!!

I went to North Wales where Bear picked us up in his powerful RIB, and took us to his island where we pitched camp. We abseiled off cliffs to retrieve our tea (pigeon and rabbit), did some free rock climbing (with no ropes). We learnt some new survival skills and did emergency rescue training. We prepared our tea – gutting and skinning - Bear’s dog ate all the rabbits – so we just had pigeon as well as our survival rations!

We had a campfire, and learnt some new songs and Bear encouraged us all to aim for our Queens Scout award as that was the best adventure!!

The following scouts have achieved their Gold Chief Scout Award recently

December 2015
James Malcom
Dugald Williams
Fraser Tomlinson
Carrick Black
Fergus McNiven

June 2015
Calum Cownie
Elliot MacKay
Cameron Wood
Tom Kistruck
Joe Badger

June 2014
Jacob Ramsay
Hannah Kistruck
Fergus Davidson
Lewis Petrie

 Dec 2013
James Riches

June 2013
Cameron Dunlop
Fraser Thomson
Rory Strong
Scott MacKay
Ross MacNaughton
Lewis Ajodani
Keir Logan
Ross Davidson

March 2013
Struan Robb

Nov 2012
Max Barr
Robert Ody

June 2012
Lewis McNiven
Alex Dean

March 2012
John MacLeod
Lewis Kennedy
Mark Leckie
Matthew Pritchard

Dec 2011
Harry Scott

May 2011
Morgan Barr
Tom McTeir
Charlie Shiel
Scott Stevenson
Greg Muir
Chris Pringle
Patrick Collings
Ross McCann

Dec 2010
Connor Jobson
Mark Baker
Mark Lowther
Ewen Cullen
Isaac Ramsay
Henry Holmes
Ruaridh Wood

June 2010
Jamie Cunningham
Gavin Williams

Dec 2009
Simon Wood
Rowan Whitton
David Kenworthy
Angus Macnaughton
Angus Donald
Alistair Scott
Michael McDonald
Jack Stears

March 2009
Chris Burn
Liam Chornogubsky
John Fullerton
Euan Magurran
Tom Shearer
Colin Stein
Joe Treanor
Michael Whittet

Dec 2008
Colin Foreman
Calum Swanson
Roddy McGlynn
Stuart McLaren
Gil Whitton
Scott Simpson

June 2008
Andrew Cramond
Fraser Cullen
Murray McKenzie
Peter Mills
Richard Wood
Stuart Clarke

June 2007 
Alisdair Irvine
Chris Toothill