Top honours for Venturers

CHARLI Ogden and Angus McMillan of the 1st Inverloch Venturer Scouts were honoured to receive their Queen’s Scout Award during a presentation at the Inverloch Scout Hall on Saturday afternoon.

The Queen’s Scout is a prestigious award and is obtained by challenging oneself to seek knowledge and gain experience through a range of activities over three years and thousands of hours of work.

Venturers must participate in weekly programs, lead and assist with activities, take turns as unit leader and take on the responsibilities that go with that role, and complete six 12-hour special interest activity badges.

For Charli and Angus, these special interest activity badges ranged from making coffee to chemical safety courses and aerial acrobatics. 

Obtaining their Queen’s Scout in 2023 was a high honour for Charli and Angus, who will be one of the last Venturers to receive this award in this lifetime. 

Charli also received her 500 kilometre hiking badge.

Angus and Charli received their Queen’s Scout in front of their peers, leaders and dignitaries, including Bass Coast Shire Council mayor Cr Clare Le Serve, Victorian Venturer Council representatives, and representatives of the Inverloch RSL and Men’s Shed.

Charli has always scouted and started with the Venturers in 2019. However, she suffered the disruption from the COVID-19 lockdown.

Despite everything happening over Zoom, Charli attended as many events as she could.

Coming out of lockdown, Charli started hiking and putting in the work to obtain her Queen’s Scout. She did her Venturer’s journey at the start of 2023 and completed her Queen’s Scout in May last year.

“My Queen Scout was a very long journey. It’s been a bit tumultuous. I was really struggling with staying in Venturers during COVID because I do not sit well on Zoom calls,” she said.

“Coming out of it, though, I have some of the best friends in the world. I’ve had a lot of opportunities to see different things that I never would’ve otherwise – from really pretty caves to abseiling down 50 metre waterfalls and exploring half of the Victorian high country on hikes. I’ve been very lucky in this experience, and I feel I’ve grown a lot as human because of it.” 

Angus’ journey was a little different, coming into the world of scouting later than Charli.

Despite the COVID struggles, Angus managed to do as much scouting as possible has gone on to hike 300 kilometres, experience adventures in New Zealand and participate in a triathlon.

“Without scouting, without Venturers and without my parents, I wouldn’t have seen so many wonderful things or met so many wonderful people,” he said.

State Venturer Scout Commissioner Duncan McColl congratulated Charli and Angus.

“Queen’s Scout is a big challenge at the best of times, but obviously COVID really threw the rulebook out the window,” he said. “Our young people who have achieved their Queen’s Scout in COVID have had to adapt, rethink and replan multiple times on the different activities. Plans they might’ve had for three years for what they might want to do for a journey or for an activity had to be changed multiple times to get this end result.

“I’d like to congratulate (Charli and Angus) because those who achieve their Queen’s Scout during the challenges of COVID I think are are the most deserving.”

Cr Le Serve congratulated the 1st Inverloch Venturer Scouts for continuing to engage young people.