Eden youngster Cody McCamish was the toast of the town on Thursday night, as he received the Grey Wolf award at a presentation attended by fellow Cub Scouts, their families, and District Cub Scout leader Nev Cowgill at the Golden Ocean Chinese Restaurant.
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The 11-year-old earned the award in recognition of three years of hard work as a member of the Eden Cub Sea Scouts, during which he satisfied the long list of requirements needed to qualify for the award.
The Grey Wolf award is the highest honour a Cub Scout can achieve, and is the equivalent of the Queen Scout award for Cubs.
Cody said receiving the award in front of his family and friends, and getting a special wolf chant from his fellow cubs was a memorable occasion.
“It’s really good and I feel proud,” he said.
“I started in the Joeys when I was seven, and moved up to the Cubs when I was eight, so it took me about three years to get the Grey Wolf”.
The Eden Public School student says he now plans to continue through the ranks, starting with the move up to Scouts.
Nev spoke glowingly of Cody’s achievement in becoming one of only a handful of Eden Cub Sea Scouts to earn the award, and said that only around 1.5 per cent of Cub Scouts reach the Grey Wolf level.
He said the current group of Cub Scouts look set to drastically bump up the percentage.
“It takes a lot of work to earn all the badges; every badge takes months to work on,” Nev said.
“This is a culmination of three years of pretty serious work, including about 15-20 nights camping for a start.
“Then there are the cooking badges, he’s done his Link Badge to go up to Scouts as well, job weeks, first aid … a whole range of different involvements.
“Not many people get there, but we’ve got three girls who are working furiously to get it in the next couple of months.
“It’s a quite a challenge, and if we can get our percentage up a bit higher than one-and-a-half, I’ll be very pleased.”
Nev encouraged young Eden residents to get involved in the local scouts program, saying it teaches valuable life skills.
“The cooking badge for example, which Cody did early in the piece – we had six kids, who were eight and nine years old, catering for 15 kids for a whole weekend,” he said.
“It gives them plenty of confidence to go on and do other things, and I’m very proud of Cody’s achievement.”
To view the full list of requirements that Cody fulfilled to earn the Grey Wolf Award, click here.
To enquire about joining the local Scouts at any level, contact Nev Cowgill on 6496 1466.
