Worldwide in nearly all Scout associations, Founders' Day is celebrated on February, the 22nd, the birthday of the founder of the Scout Movement, Robert Stephenson Smyth Baden-Powell, known as B-P, who was born in Paddington, London on the 22nd of February 1857.

Celebrations took place today for the Gozo Scout District, with the Victoria Scout Group and Xaghra Scout Group. A marching parade with both groups, was followed by a Founder's Day Mass, led by the Bishop of Gozo Mario Grech, at the Church of the Good Shepherd in Victoria.In over 200 countries and territories there are around 40 million Scouts of all ages, male and female, and some 500 million people have been Scouts, including prominent people in every field.

It started in the UK with 20 boys and an experimental camp in 1907. It was held during the first nine days of August in 1907 on a small island in Poole Harbour – Brownsea Island, in Dorset. The great success of the camp proved to its organiser, B-P, that his training and methods appealed to young people and really worked.

Then in January 1908, Baden-Powell published the first edition of `Scouting for Boys.' It proved to be an immediate success and has since sold over 100 million copies, making it one of the best selling books of all time.

Baden-Powell had only intended to provide a method of training boys, something that existing youth organisations such as the Boys' Brigade and YMCA could adopt. To his surprise, youngsters started to organise themselves into what was to become one of the largest voluntary youth movements in the world.

Baden-Powell also started the Girl Guides programme in 1910. His wife Olave, whom he married in 1912, became Chief Guide.

Photographs courtesy of Victoria Scout Group & Xaghra Scout Group

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