By Renee Wood
Ella McNair has become the latest 1st Healesville Scout Group Venturer member to receive her Queen Scout Honour.
It’s the first time in almost forty years for a member to receive the prestigious honour, following the last recipient Debra Hosking in 1983.
Ella said her past scout leader David Blair (Strider) who was tragically killed in a skiing accident in 2019 was a big motivation towards her achieving this.
“He always said when we were doing scouts ‘you got to do this, this is the end goal’ – that was really lovely having that motivation there,” Ella said.
“At the end of the day I think that’s probably what pushed me over to end up getting the badge.”
To receive the badge, a Venturer must complete 300 hours of service across two sections, completing 13 badges in the Venturer Award section and four in the Queen Scout section.
The 18 year old first started working towards the badge when she was 15 in 2019.
“A lot of the badge work’s done outside of Venturers itself… it’s up to the own individual whether they do it or not,” she said.
Completing quests such first aid courses, volunteering with the local op shop and CFA, leadership courses and a arranging a major hike were part of the badges.
Ella hopes her achievement will provide the younger cubs and scouts with a sense that it’s attainable.
“I think being that big of a period of time people think it’s not achievable anymore, but I hope now that I’ve done it, the younger kids can look up to me in that aspect.”
The honour is not only recognised within the scouting community, but it’s recognised world wide. It can also help with future career paths with different universities working in conjunction with Scouts.
Latrobe University will automatically take a Queen Scout recipient through into a course and other universities such as ACU will add extra points to ATAR scores.
“I don’t think people realise that it can help in that aspect.. a lot of people just think, why would I want to do that, it’s 300 hours, that’s a lot of time but I think in the long run it helps out a lot.”
Ella hopes this will give her the upper hand towards reaching her dream study goals as she aspires to join midwifery studies at ACU.
“That’s pretty competitive to get into, so we’ll see how that goes. Hopefully the extra points can boost me up enough to be able to get into that course or at least one similar.”
Ella first started as a cub in grade three and said there has been many highlights over the years being part of the organisation.
“It’s taken me a lot of places – we’ve been to Tassie, South Australia… the highest mountain in Victoria – we’ve done quite a lot looking back over all the years. It’s been pretty awesome.”
Ella believes it’s provided her with a sense of resilience and determination to pursue her goals.
“With the persevering to get the award, I think it shows career wise that you’re able to put your time into doing something in the long run.
“I just hope that being able to do this will take me further career wise.”
