Nearly 1,000 boy and girl scouts came together in Pattaya to celebrate the 104rd anniversary of the founding of the Boy Scouts in Thailand.
Deputy Mayor Vichien Pongpanit opened the June 30 Boy Scouts Founders Day commemoration at the Eastern National Indoor Sports Stadium with 62 scouting leaders for Pattaya’s 11 public schools and 982 boy, girl and river scouts.
The ceremony saw the youths recite the scouting pledge and take part in a parade.
Education Department chief Nopisitcha Na Nakorn then presented certificates to outstanding scouts and to those who sacrificed their time to develop scouting in Pattaya.
King Rama VI founded the Boy Scouts in Thailand on July 1, 1911. Each year, more than 10,000 scouts march at National Stadium in Bangkok to express their loyalty to the monarchy and scouting.
Lord Baden Powell originally founded the Boy Scouts in Great Britain in 1907 and the scouts’ original mission was to prepare members for the military. Rama VI set up a scouting organization for government officials and the public to instill patriotic feelings. Thailand was just the third country to join the international scouting organization.
