On Monday, August 1, the group celebrated World Scout Day, in which several awards were bestowed on leaders across the Wimmera as part of the 2022 Adult Leaders Awards.

Included in the award winners were; Amber Healey and Andrew North who won Special Service awards, Andrew Richards, David Timms, Jill Adams, Nicole Dean, Nicole Timms and Quintin Murphy who won Meritorius Service awards, Jason Hay and Margaret Isaacson who won Silver Wattles, Leigh Cooksley who won a Silver Koala, and Ann and Peter Pearse who won Silver Emus.

Horsham 4th Scouts group leader David Timms said the five awards came as a pleasant surprise and were impressive considering the size of the group.

"Obviously we must be doing something right. Generally, with these awards, there will be one here or there each year, but it is amazing that it has come to five of us this year," Mr Timms said.

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Horsham has two active scout groups, the 2nd and 4th, which operate out of the Scout Hall on Baillie Street.

Mr Timms became involved with the group 12 years ago, initially as part of the parent's committee, until the 4th group needed a new group leader.

He said a successful scout group depended on the quality of the program being delivered.

"I think, to have a successful group depends on what sort of a program we deliver. We meet once a week for a couple of hours, we also have camps and different things," Mr Timms said.

"There are a whole bunch of different things we do at the scouts through which you can earn different badges.

"I am thinking if we can deliver a good program that the kids are interested in and happy, that makes them want to come back."

Scout leader Quintin Murphy was one of the five chosen for an award for his five years of service as a leader.

Mr Murphy said the awards were a recognition of the effort put in by leaders at 4^th Horsham, especially during the past two years' lockdowns.

"It is a bit of recognition on what I have managed to achieve. We have a good bunch of kids and over COVID that was the hardest two years for the group," Mr Murphy said.

"We managed to keep scouts going through COVID - we managed to meet at least once a week, even if it is just a five-minute catch up on Zoom to say hi."

Mr Murphy said his favourite part of being a scout leader was helping kids towards becoming confident in their skills

"When the kids excel at something - or it just clicks, that is really good," Mr Murphy said.

"It is running nights, it is supporting the kids. Scouting works off of a youth-led adult-supported model. It is very much empowering youth leaders to run activities themselves.

"We kept numbers fairly steady through COVID, since then we have rebounded and it is absolutely amazing. We are fortunate to be in the position we are here because there are groups that have shut down since COVID."

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