26/09/2026
Why we do it…
My favourite moment as Chief Scout was watching the most nervous kid in the room make their promise.
You can always spot them. Shy, uncertain, convinced they do not belong, hovering at the edge of the group with their eyes fixed on their shoes.
Then they say the words, and someone ties that little scarf, the necker, around their neck. And something changes in them. Perhaps for the first time, a child who felt invisible is told, clearly, you belong here. You are one of us. We are glad you came.
I have watched that small moment set a kid on a completely different path in life. Children who had been written off, never picked for anything, suddenly standing a little taller.
It costs us so little to make a young person feel they matter. A word. A bit of belief. Showing up when nobody else did. And yet that tiny investment can quietly reshape an entire life.
Somebody did exactly that for me once, when I was a lost and unremarkable boy. It is a large part of why I am who I am today.
We so badly underestimate the power we hold to change a young life with the smallest act of belief.
Whose early belief in you are you still standing on today, and whose could you choose to become?
