TENS of thousands of young people across East Lancashire have been involved in scouts or the girl guides over the years.

Youngsters spend countless hours outdoors learning valuable skills, collecting badges and making lots of friends and memories.

Scouting was founded after Lieutenant-General Robert Baden-Powell published Scouting for Boys in 1908.

It was published in six fortnightly parts, setting out activities and programmes which existing youth organisations could use.

It was taken by the public very well and scout groups exploded onto the scene up and down the country and followed the principles of the lieutenant-general’s book.

It swiftly established itself across the world and by 1910, when girl guides were introduced, there were groups across Argentina, India, America and eastern Europe.

There are now more than 32million scouts and girl guides world-wide, with one million in the UK. Indonesia has the largest total, with 17million, roughly seven per cent of the population.

Blackburn Scouts recently announced it has had a 30 per cent growth in the number of beaver scouts that have joined up in the last 12 months. Which shows the movement is not only surviving, but thriving.