SINGAPORE – The Scouts was not 18-year-old Lin Chuan Yu’s first choice of co-curricular activity (CCA) when he started Secondary 1 at River Valley High School. 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 Villa in the Istana.

Also at the same ceremony, six Girl 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 Girl Guides and Venture Scouts of the year for their all-rounded performance, service to the community and dedication to the Girl Guiding 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 Cares to historic and scenic locations to encourage them to reminisce about the past. The project helps seniors and students interact and share with one another their life experiences.

“The elderly hold a lot of wisdom and knowledge,” Chuan Yu told The Straits Times, “We can learn (from them) how to be more humble and be more steadfast in whatever we pursue.”

During a trip that year, he met an elderly woman who recognised him from another Scouts ...