The new format for the [Hamilton-Wentworth] Awards Banquet this year was a super Good Turn on the part of those responsible. No opening speeches, no head table, no business meeting, just good food, warm fellowship and wonderfully casual, but sincere, spotlight on achievement. And, if "Good Turn" means "reaching out in love", then the Good Turn was also very much in evidence.

We saw it in Beaver Seth Gillan who reached out to save a friend from drowning last summer and whose shy smile, while being honoured at the Banquet, reached out and touched every heart in the room, and planted in each of us a seed of hope, a hope that "reaching out" will come as naturally for us as it does for Seth.

We saw it in the popcorn awards when Rover Dale Martin found herself waist-high in Beavers and Cubs and reached out good-naturedly by kneeling down and embracing them for the photo shoot.

Whether at an Awards Banquet, a Rover Moot in Mexico or Australia, a C.J. in P.E.I. or a weekend camp at Nemo, wherever Scouts congregate, the air is alive with the spirit of the Good Turn.

But, it doesn't stop there. That spirit goes with us everywhere. Doing Good Turns is as natural to Scouts as breathing, or should I say "Breathing to us is as natural as the Good Turn"? I think so.

After all, we are the GOOD TURN people, aren't we?