Water under the bridge

To the keen Caneades Blog followers the following won't come as a total surprise. The praises of the Scout Association are sung loudly and frequently on here, for no other reason than their years of equipping youngsters to cope with adventurous activities and the vagaries of life in general are well documented but frequently overlooked, as the media concentrate their column inches on the drunks, the hooligans and the tearaways, all of which can tend to tar teenagers in general with the same, rather mucky, brush.

It was, therefore, with nothing short of delight that we saw the Daily Post’s, albeit belated, article this morning about Explorer Scouts, from which we quote:

At Whitney-on-Wye the Scouts saw a group in locally hired boats in obvious distress. The five Explorer Scouts, Gavin Scott, George Jones, James Cragg, and Sam Dodd, all pupils at Llangollen Dinas Bran, and Suzie Gregory, a pupil at Brynhyfryd Ruthin, were paddling from Glasbury in Powys to Hoarwithy in Herefordshire as part of a three-day expedition.

The five Llangollen Explorer Scouts were taking part in an expedition for their Duke of Edinburgh Silver award on the River Wye. The Explorer Scout leader said: "One of the group's canoes was stuck against the pillar of a bridge due to a strong current. The boat had tipped over throwing one paddler into the river and leaving the other, a young pregnant woman, standing terrified in the sinking canoe."

Three of the quick thinking Explorers went to the aid of the party, one going after the person in the water and the others rescuing the woman from the boat. River levels were about two feet higher than normal and flowing fast following recent rain. Despite the fact there were adults on the river, the brave 16-year-olds took charge and organised the rescue. All five of the Scouts are experienced paddlers and have practised river rescues.

The group completed the expedition, covering 51 miles in the 3 days, and are on course to gain their Duke of Edinburgh Silver Awards and the Chief Scout's Diamond Award.

Let’s not forget that we’re still breeding youngsters with all the fine qualities we ever were.