ARE you one of 500,000 former Cub Scouts in Hampshire? Maybe you’re one of more than 6,000 young people who are today’s Cub Scouts in the county? Or perhaps your son or daughter, brother or sister, friend or neighbour is a Cub Scout?

For all of us who have been involved with Cub Scouting, 2016 is a big year. Because this is the 100th anniversary of the movement. It all started with Wolf Cubs during the First World War, offering “legalised mischief” to boys aged eight to 10. Today it offers amazing outdoor and indoor adventures to girls and boys around the world, an escape from computers and cotton wool, and a whole lot of fun.

But let’s start with the basics. What is Cub Scouting? If you’ve ever watched the wildlife programmes and seen the lion cubs in the pride or the wolf cubs in the pack, you’ll know already. It offers many young people their first taste of adventure – cooking sausages on a fire, sleeping out in a tent away from home, ascending a climbing wall. It teaches the life skills you need to grow up – independence, teamwork and leadership. And it provides the chance to escape from normal life and run around having fun with friends in a safe environment.

I was a Cub Scout once. I can still remember working hard to gain my gold arrow, the itchy wool jumper, and joining a camp fire as the sun set across the countryside. Many of the activities of Cub Scouting are timeless, but many more are new.

Cub Scouting is open to all young people aged between eight and 10, girls and boys, of every background, and from city streets to hospital wards. Today, there are hundreds of activities which Cub Scouts can take part in, from archery to zorbing, and from bivouacking to raising money for Children in Need. Plus the uniform is a lot more informal and comfortable these days!

Hampshire has more Cub Scouts than any other county in the UK, and so we are going to have the wildest party and do a lot of celebrating in 2016. Cub Scouts will be trying to achieve 100 challenges this year, from spending 100 minutes on a community project to toasting 100 marshmallows on a campfire.

Cub packs around Hampshire are joining together to run special Cubs100 weekend adventure camps, including one on Brownsea Island where the first ever Scout camp was held. We’ll be bringing thousands of Cubs from across Hampshire together at Winchester Cathedral in the spring, and at a secret countryside location in the summer.

And at 8.16pm on December 16, each Cub pack will come together to renew their promise to “help other people”.

Scouting is growing in Hampshire and across the UK and has been for the past 10 years – and that’s because it offers young people the opportunity for adventure with friends, and adults the chance to make a difference for future generations.

To get involved in the centenary of Cub Scouting, join the Cub Scouts, or become one of 5,000 volunteers in Hampshire Scouting, visit hampshirescouting.org.uk. One hundred years ago the Cub Scouting adventure began, and it’s still going on. Come and join the fun.