A Muslim Scout Group, based in Luton, has given the region’s TV audience a taste of the future of Scouting. They appeared on BBC Look East to show how to construct a model of the solar system as part of the new Cub Scout astronomer badge to be launched next month. This is one of 42 new badges introduced by the Scouts to make the movement more relevant to today’s society. Others include healthy eating, street sports and astronautics.

Opened by group Scout Leader Hasan Nasiri in 2005, the 25^th Beech Hill ISB Scout group now has 27 enthusiastic members aged up 10. Led by Cub Scout Leader Waqar Sheikh, the budding astronomers worked in pairs to make a mobile using a paper plate to support the sun and planets on string. First puzzle: “How many planets are there?” said Waqar. It was a question right out of ‘Are you brighter than a 10 year old?’ Most of the Cub Scouts knew the answer. Safi Khalil (9) said, “It used to be nine but now it’s eight.”

The project included giving the correct colour to all the planets. The sun is yellow but the Cubs had problems with the planets. “What colour is Saturn?” said one. Another guessed correctly that the earth is blue and Mars is red. Proud Cub Scout Hamza Ijaz (9) was one of the first to show his finished astronomer project.

The programme also covered Bedfordshire’s search for new leaders. As Hasan said, “If I advertised, we would have another 50 young people waiting to join but no more leaders. We have regular help from undergraduates at the University of Bedfordshire and other contacts but we need more permanent leaders.”

County Commissioner John Duley explained, “We have 450 youngsters on our waiting lists in the county and we need at least 100 leaders to clear this backlog. I want to see 300 new leaders coming into our districts in the next few years so we can increase Scouting membership by 1000 to 1500. And we are about to appoint a Local Development Officer to help us do this, the first full time post we have ever had, all our other leaders are volunteers. Once we have enough adults we plan to open a second Muslim Group in Luton and a Sikh Group in Bedford.”

John added, “These excited youngsters thrive on the fun-filled and challenging programme we offer. They learn how to cope with the world around them and now understand more about our solar system than I ever knew at their age. With additional volunteer leaders we can make a real difference to the lives of many more youngsters.”