Chief Scout Bear Grylls will take to the air at the weekend to meet 2,500 Scouts from Avon at two venues: Bristol City Docks and Ashton Court.

While there, Bear and the 2,500 young people attending will take in a range of activities including, at Ashton Court: music and dance workshops, circus skills, water zorbs, astrojet simulator, crazy golf, Scalextric, crazy bikes, trampolines, inflatables, and many others; and at Bristol docks: canoeing, sailing, pulling and rafting.

The event will be one of fifteen that Bear visits in the South West at the weekend. The tour is part of his mission to encourage more adults to volunteer for Scouting, as well as celebrate the important role of Scouting in Avon and the UK as a whole. The journey comes as part his plan to visit the whole of the UK during his term as Chief Scout, having previously visited the North East, Yorkshire and the South East.

The weekend’s event showed what Scouting is all about, offering thousands of young people the opportunity to take part in adventure in the company of peers and trusted adults. The Scout Association is the largest co-educational youth Movement in the country. Recent figures have shown that membership has passed the 500,000 mark in the UK.

However, the Movement is in desperate need of more adult volunteers to ensure that more young people can join the adventure. Waiting lists to join Scouting stand at over 33,500 nationally.  

Bear Grylls, Chief Scout, said:

“I’m so looking forward to getting to meet so many Scouts over the next couple of days, and I know from experience that at every event I am dropping into that there will be hundreds upon hundreds of young people taking part in the adventure that Scouting provides. Such an atmosphere is such a privilege to be a part of. It’s crucial though that even more adults sign up as volunteers, to help the many other young people who are on the Scout waiting lists to have the opportunity to join in the adventure.”

Abby, an Explorer Scout aged sixteen from Nailsea, said:

“It will be great to meet Bear as he’s such a huge inspiration for me. Scouting’s all about adventure, so there’s better than having someone like Bear join in. I love being a Scout – it’s built up my confidence, helped me make loads of new friends, expanded my horizons and allowed me to try so many brilliant things I would have otherwise never been able to do."

James Roberts, a Scout Leader from 1^st Chew Stoke in Wansdyke, said:

“It will be great to have Bear involved this weekend – the young people in my Group are really excited and can’t stop talking about it. Volunteering as a Scout Leader is one of the best things I’ve ever done: there’s nothing more fulfilling than helping young people get the most out of life. I’ve also picked up loads of day-to-day skills that I can use at work as well.”