Akela Awarded The Commissioner’s Commendation

Mark Collier, better known to countless Cub Scouts as Akela was this week awarded the Commissioner’s Commendation Award. Mark has been involved in Scouting for most of his life and in 2017 was the only leader remaining at 392nd Manchester Scout Group when the District Commissioner approached him with an idea to merge 392nd with 123rd Manchester, Mark embraced the idea and has been instrumental in growing the combined Chorlton Scout Group into the largest scout group in Manchester South District.

Mark Collier aka Akela

Mark was presented his award by Deputy District Commissioner and Chorlton’s GSL Jonathan Allerton who said “I’m delighted to be able to present Akela with this much deserved award and recognise his enormous contribution to the growth of scouting in Chorlton”.  Mark was presented his award in front of his Cub Pack at their first face to face meeting in over 6 months  due to the Covid-19 pandemic, during that  time the cub pack kept active online with Mark and Assistant Leader Nick running over 20 zoom sessions for their young people. The fact that Mark was able to do this whilst working as a key worker for Tesco throughout the pandemic is particularly inspiring.

The Commissioner’s Commendation  Award

All adults in Scouting are volunteers, recognising their contribution to the movement is hugely important to us, anyone can nominate a leader, exec member or youth member for an award by emailing awards@mansouthscouts.org.uk