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Award Win for ScoutsReunited

14th August 2003

An artist worked overnight on a statue that was presented to The Scout Association today after it won the London Regional Finals of the Broadband Britain Challenge with their website ScoutsReunited. The winners were measured up last night at the award ceremony in The Music Room, Mayfair, which was presented by Paul Ross and Philippa Forrester. The 3D portrait of the winners was presented to them today in Westminster. The Scout Association will join other regional winners for a VIP ceremony and UK finals on 12th September in London.

The aim of the Challenge was to gather Broadband success stories from across the country and demonstrate to other people how Broadband can positively alter their lives. The Broadband Britain Challenge is part of the Government initiative to attract more people to the Internet, and is sponsored by UK Online for Business and BT Wholesale.

ScoutsReunited was designed to help former Scouts contact each other and rekindle old friendships. The site has over 13,000 members, with an average of 40 new members signing up each day. The site has already helped over 1,000 former members link up with old friends around the world.

Simon Carter from The Scout Association says 'The site is highly innovative in its approach, and was conceived and developed totally by volunteers at no cost. It complements ScoutBase UK, one of the largest and most successful membership websites in the UK charity sector. ScoutsReunited has helped Members develop a sense of online community'.

The site has also allowed members to break the barriers of distance and contact people who have moved abroad since leaving the Scouts. The Scout Association plans to enhance the site on a global scale, with the view to launch ScoutsReunited in Australia, the US, New Zealand and Canada.

Simon says 'We are delighted to win this award. ScoutsReunited has been a huge success and we are very pleased to have won the Broadband for Britain Challenge. The statue is a fantastic prize and we will display it proudly at our headquarters at Gilwell.

Note

Details of the challenge can be found at

http://www.broadbandbritainchallenge.co.uk/index.php