Award Recipients

Congratulations to all of the Award Recipients at the St George’s Ball 2023.

Max Van Der Poel

The Award for Outstanding Rovering

This outstanding rover led the Queensland Rover Contingent to Apple Isle Moot earlier this year. Describing this endeavor as a challenge would be an understatement. This rover devoted years of meticulous preparation to ensure the seamless execution of this endeavour. He handled every hiccup with grace and ensured everyone was able to enjoy their time in Tasmania. On top of this role, he has been very active within the unit as the Unit Leader for the past year, and running unit nights characterised by a diverse array of activities spanning subjects from Mental Health to Orienteering and Construction. Throughout his time as a Rover Scout, he has embraced a multitude of roles, each of which he showcased his dedication to the growth and advancement of every Rover. This person is someone who always embodies what it means to be a Rover, and will continue to do so after being booted.

Amanda Brown

The Queensland Chairman’s Award

This Rover held the role of programming officer from July 2022-July 2023 and had an extremely successful year. With the old program wrapping up, she managed to coordinate and host 25 Baden Powell Scout Award interviews between July-December 2022 (including her own BPSA interview, hosted by the chair at the time), which is by far the record in one year. She developed skills to able to ask all interviewees challenging questions that allowed them to think deeper into how they have progressed throughout their BPSA journey. She also had the unique opportunity to see what Rover Scouts in Queensland are getting up to in their own time and how much they have been able to give back to the scouting and wider community. Co-ordinating this many interviews meant occasionally having to attend three interviews back to back, which happened a few times.

Victor Rover Unit

The Paddle

This Rover Unit was founded on the principles of inclusivity, diversity, and a shared commitment to becoming a better unit. Our focus is on creating a nurturing and supportive and inclusive environment for all members. Aiming to stand by each other through the ups and downs, embracing change and emphasizing the true essence of scouting: the friendships and camaraderie we all cherish. Since its relaunch in November 2022, this Unit has transformed from a non-existent entity to a thriving Rover crew with over 10 members. In a remarkably short period of time, the concept of this Unit has evolved from an idea among a few Rovers at Agoonoree to a fully established crew capable of serving both the scouting and wider community. It has also become a vibrant and inclusive space where members can enjoy themselves personally while also enjoying the wonders of scouting.

Charles Fairbairn

The Beyond The Horizon Award for New and Active Rover Scouts

The next awardee is a remarkable young rover who excels in everything he does. With a can-do attitude and a winning spirit, he always steps forward to lend a helping hand to others, even if it sometimes comes at his own expense. He holds multiple significant roles within the Scouting community. He is the Secretary of the Branch Youth Council, a Scout Section Leader for nearly 50 scouts at the Cleveland Scout group, and the South-Eastern Region Rep for the QBRC. This rover is also an active member of the STEM team, and delivers Terrain training courses at Scouting Essential & Scouting Leadership training courses, as well as to other Units/Leaders upon request. His dedication and leadership make a positive impact on the growth and development of fellow Rovers is commendable.

Max Manson

The Beyond The Horizon Award for New and Active Rover Scouts

This young Rovers unwavering dedication to Scouting and Rovering is truly remarkable. He consistently devotes countless hours to the movement, going above and beyond to prioritise his Rover commitments even amidst his work, family, and study responsibilities. His current roles include being the QBRE Program officer, NRC Observer, Environment and sustainability officer and a BYC patrol leader. In his short time in Rovers he has attended the Asia Pacific Youth Mobilisation summit in Malaysia, the first Global Youth Summit in Korea, LEAP 2023 and assisted on a couple of QBRC run events, QMoot and Urban Challenge. His dedication to scouting conferences and activities exemplifies his unwavering commitment to personal growth, leadership, and the betterment of the Scouting community.

Samira Iesa

ADVENTUROUS ROVERING

This Rover is a very new addition to her unit, but has become qualified in many Adventurous Activity Areas. She holds Trained Participant in Pioneering, snorkelling, off road easy trail cycling, zip line, archery and sailing. She also holds Safe Participant in survival, bushwalking and paddling. This young rover is working hard to finish her guide qualifications in some of these area’s and has been an active supporter of others completing AA training and qualifications. She uses her qualifications to run activities for Rovers, Venturers and even Leaders at DTM’s. She has also been working with Scouts Queensland at the Outdoor Adventure School over the school holidays. This is a rover who is always willing to take on new challenges both within AA and rovers in general.

Jasmine Ferrero

ADVENTUROUS ROVERING

This Rovers AA commitments have stemmed from her love of Scouting starting in the Scout Unit. She became a Youth Helper in Venturers and an Adult Leader when she turned 18. Her forte is Pioneering, having completed her SP and TP, her ambition is to extend her skills as a guide to provide more activities to her Group as well as District and Region. She has a love of Four-wheel driving, canoeing and water activities. Her skills have been called on many occasions and her enthusiasm has made her a popular and obvious choice to lead activities. This persons commitment to the Rovers has also extended to smaller District and Regional Units welcoming them in and arranging AA activities working towards OAS progressions. As a Rover whose skills extend into other units, this rover has become a valuable member of many teams and is very deserving of this award.

Christopher Dibbs

The Challenge Valley Award for Event or Project Management

This Rover was responsible for planning and and then running (with a few other Rovers from FBRC) a city wide challenge for LEAP North 2023 involving 48 youth in Townsville. He had never done anything like this before and he built the entire program from scratch. He was able to implement this in an event that was in its first year of being run, which was a very challenging task. He is also the Assistant Unit Leader for the Florence Bay Rover Crew, the Scout Leader at the local Charters Towers Scout Group and helps every week with Cubs. He won Young Citizen of the Year 2023 at the Australia Day Awards as a result of his work in the community.

Darcy Rose and the Page to Stage Team

The Challenge Valley Award for Event or Project Management

At just 21, this Rover produced a brand new scouting show with the help of a wonderful committee. The introduction of this show allowed a group of rovers and adult members the opportunity to get on stage and do something they love for the people they love, in a community they love. Along with learning the processes behind a stage show getting up and running, she was a wonderful support to the entire cast and the crew and everyone involved. She not only took on her own role as producer, she was also a musician during the shows, a choreographer in the rehearsal period and she covered for much of the production team when they weren’t able to be there. She was at every rehearsal for months and leading up to it she always had time for everyone to help them develop and improve. This rover and her team pulled off an amazing project, and should be proud of the work they undertook and the challenges they worked around.

Darling Downs Rovers

The Rover Scout Spirit Award for Outstanding Community Projects

This bunch of Rovers are always the first to be asked to assist in their Region as they uphold the fundamentals of Scouting and are always willing to help. Whether it be at ANZAC days, region camps, district camps or council events such as relay for life, carnival of flowers to name a few. One of their biggest activities includes creating an amazing Toowoomba Carnival of Flowers Float advertising Scouts to the community. The amazing float is designed, created and organised by this group of Rovers and always has the entire parade amazed at the magnificent work. Their work was recognised in 2022, when they were awarded the community float trophy and overall best float for the entire parade, an acheivement to be extremely proud of.

Evan Cashman

The Imaginiative Rover Scout Award for Creative Programming

This creative Rover is always looking for ways to innovate our units program. From turning old ideas and putting a new perspective on them to creating ideas that captivate our unit. This person continuously looks for ways to try new ideas or innovate existing old concepts. Such as turning the age old cooking competition between units into an air fryer only competition. This person is the go to person for random games or activities to try during program nights and camps and always has something up his sleeve for us to try. Despite their creativity and experience, he is not someone who likes to stick out from the crowd. He much prefers to observe and make suggestions but simply doesn’t get the recognition he deserves for his continuous dedication to challenging the unit to try new things and ideas.

Kelly Martin

The BRA Award for Continuous Support

This leader has been the go to person for personal safety officer at events across qld for many years now. She has consistently agreed to lend a hand as personal safety officer for events often with little to no notice. This person goes above and beyond to support the Rover Scout Section. Despite having a crazy schedule, she will often try and negotiate her work in order to still support Rover events. Notable events that come to mind are NZ ventures, Agoonoree, National Ventures, Contingents that went to KISC and of course countless Queensland Rover events such as QMoots, QARM, TnT and Banana Bash’s. We will absolutely miss this person being there to support our events and most importantly, our Rovers.

Clare Frost

The Oven Overlord

This person is being awarded the Oven Overlord award due to many reasons. Her prowess in delivering high quality and quantity food for CONQR Pre and Post Tours was a highlight for many who attended. She ensured that the contingent was well fed and sanitised during the tours. She has always been known to take great pride in catering for events and loves to provide food different from norm and does so in an organised manner. She is merciless in her approach to cleanliness and ensures everyone shares their enthusiasm for this. This persons most recent achievement was providing food in her patrol for rovers all around the country at Ski Moot in Victoria. The chalet was located a 10Km cross country skiing journey from where they started (personal physical achievement for this rover as well), which meant all food for the week was already provided and stored at the base. One particular story heard from this journey, was when there was a food mishap which forced the restart of the entire meal, but due to her experience and organisation she was able to whip up the meal in no time and serve dinner earlier than any other group had during the camp. Well done on catering for many events during your time in rovers, your catering will certainly be missed.

Emily George

Best Bongo Player

This person took on the challenge of learning to play the Bongo’s for Firebringers opening number. After many struggles with timing and technique she managed to successfully play the bongos to open all of our shows even though she ended the season with calloused and bruised hands. The shows musical director even gifted her a set of bongos that now live under her bed, ready for an encore performance.

Xanthia Dubler & Jamie Brake

King and Queen

These two have been tied at the hip for yonks and have recently agreed to make that committment for life. Where ever you find one, you will almost always see the other close by. Even if that means seeing Brisbane Gang Show 5 times in the one season.