St George's Day parade in town

On Sunday, about 500 young people between the ages of six and 18 formed a parade, with children from the district’s 11 Scout Groups – Billinghay, Coningsby and Tatershall, Cranwell, Heckington, Horncastle, Leasingham, Metheringham, Ruskington, Sleaford, Wellingore and Woodhall Spa.

The parade set off from North Kesteven District Council car park at 1.30pm and was followed by a service at St Denys’ Church.

District Commissioner, Ian Kingdom said: “St George’s Day is a highlight of my Scouting year. Not only do we as a district come together to celebrate Scouting, but we also get to say thank you to our leaders and supporters.”

Nomads Explorer Bethany Appleyard, 17, said: “St George’s Day is an important day to Scouts, it reminds us that it is more than just another club, where you go climbing or kayaking, have a go at archery or gliding, but also make a positive contribution to our community.”

Adam Jacklin, deputy district commissioner, said: “The parade was a tremendous success, the Explorer Scouts story of St George sketch was fantastic.”

During the service, awards were presented to young people and volunteers, including three Chief Scout Silver Awards; three Chief Scout Gold Awards; five Chief Scouts Platinum Awards; five Duke of Edinburgh Bronze Awards; three Duke of Edinburgh Silver Awards; three Chief Scouts Diamond Awards; five Woodbadges (leader training awards); and two Young Leader Training Awards.

Alex Mantel, from Dodgers Explorers, and Bethany Appleyard, from Nomads Explorers, both got County Commissioner’s Commendations to Explorer Scouts; Jan Savill, from Leasingham, Stuart Bannister, from Ruskington, and Jeff Stamford, from Metheringham, got the Bar to the Silver Acorn for 25 year’s service; Alex Mantel, young leader 1st Leasingham Scout Group, won Young Leader of the Year Award; and Kirsty Thompson, Cub Scout leader 1st Wellingore Scout Group, won the Jeffrey Crombie Plate.

Adam said: “Our main failing is our success. We have more members than at any point in our history but sadly also long waiting lists of young people wanting to join us, unfortunately we don’t have the leaders.”