While the cost of living crisis has forced some youth organisations to fold as people opt for a paid-for second jobs over volunteering, one Scouts group is bucking the trend.

The 24th Borstal Scout Group, which has 115 members ranging in age from four to 18, and 20 volunteer leaders, is celebrating its 100th birthday.

And they are confident the group will be around for another century as the Scouting movement continues to keep pace with the 21st century.

Over the decades what was initially the 1st Borstal Scout Group, formed on August 24, 1924, has moved to a string of different meeting places within the village.

There were originally about 24 Cubs and Scouts who met at the community centre, known as the Borstal Institute.

Other locations included halls in Manor Lane, Borstal Road, Borstal Street and Factory Farm and then in 1948 they relocated to a purpose-built building on Cookham Hill which cost £1,250 to construct and the equivalent of £1.25 to run a week.

In 1972, a deal was struck with the Highways Agency and they moved as tenants to their current address in Warwick Crescent next to the Pilgrim School and near the M2 motorway bridge.

Sappers from the Royal Engineers helped to build their base which has undergone improvements in recent years, including new toilets and a roof.

The group has this year been granted a further 21-year lease from the agency.

It was here that they invited friends and family along with civic dignitaries including the Mayor of Medway, Cllr Marian Nestorov and the mayoress Liubov Nestorov to their milestone bash.

Fun and games were enjoyed by all and an exhibition highlighting their activities and history was mounted in the hall.

The Scout Association announced last year that nearly 90,000 young people across the UK are on current waiting lists.

However, groups are reported to be struggling due to a shortage of people to help out.

But in Medway the 24th Borstal Scouts Group continues to survive with the goodwill of volunteers who believe passionately in the benefits it brings not just to members but society as a whole.

Graeme Pryke, group lead volunteer, said: “We keep going because we have to. Scouting is not a club, it is a movement and as such it moves with the times.

“It keeps up with the trends and constantly works to make the programme, fun, exciting and relevant for the time we live in.

“In the digital world we now live in, the Scout Association has come up with badges and awards that require the support of modern tech while still having a glance over the shoulder to our past.

“Our programme is very traditional in the sense that we spend a lot of time working with our young people to teach them essential skills that we all recognise as scouting skills, camping, knots, cooking, and community spirit and we give them skills for life.”

Fundraising is key to running costs and enables them to keep subs low to encourage more boys and girls to enrol and continue from Squirrels to Beavers, Cubs, Scouts and Explorers.

Graeme started as a Cub in the 1980s, leaving as a Scout, and only returned 25 years later to help out an old friend.

“The rest is history,” he said.

Graeme’s family are all involved. His wife Bev is an Akela and cub leader and his daughter Amelia, 13 and son Alex, 11 are Scouts.

He said: “It takes a huge amount of effort, commitment, passion and love to keep a group like Borstal alive.

“We are one of the largest groups in the Medway Towns District.

“Volunteer hours alone are approximately 5,000 hours per year.

He added: “I think Scouting will continue to blaze a trail in the same way it has for the last almost 120 years.

“It will continue to innovate and it will continue to give our young people the very best start in life.”