Outstanding Scouts and Guides receive awards from President

The Scouts was not 18-year-old Lin Chuan Yu's first choice for a co-curricular activity group when he started Secondary 1 at River Valley High School.

- Tang Yi Qing

He was assigned to it. But he stayed on as he appreciated the values that he learnt from the uniformed group's activities.

Six years later, Chuan Yu was one of the 14 Venture Scouts - members of the movement's unit for older boys - who received the President's Scout Award from President Tharman Shanmugaratnam on Dec 2 at the Istana.

At the same ceremony, six Guides received the 2024 President's Guide Award.

The President's Guide and the President's Scout awards are the highest honours bestowed on Singapore's most outstanding Guides and Venture Scouts of the year for their well-rounded performance, service to the community and dedication to the Guide and Scouting movements.

The award recipients are students who have shown extraordinary leadership potential as they take part in projects that address national or global issues.

In 2023, Chuan Yu led the team conducting Project Reminiscence, a values-in-action (VIA) project by the Scouts in his school.

Under the project, the Scouts take elderly beneficiaries of partner organisations such as SG Cares, Thye Hua Kwan and Sage Counselling Centre to historical and scenic locations to encourage them to reminisce about the past.

The project helps seniors and students interact and share their life experiences with one another.