SCOUTS in the Petersfield area are getting ready for massive centenary celebrations in the next few months. A programme of events is being arranged to commemorate 100 years of the group across the world. Petersfield District Scouts including groups from Petersfield, Liphook, Liss, Sheet and the East Hants Villages will be joining 1,500 fellow members from Hampshire for a grand centenary camp on Hayling Island over the Whitsun Bank Holiday. On July 30 Petersfield Scouts are proud to be involved in the Spirit of the Flame ceremony. On August 1 - the official date of the centenary - Petersfield District Scouts will be rising early and gathering at Butser Hill for the Sun Rise ceremony. Along with Scouts from all over the world they will be holding the ceremony at 8am and around 600 East Hampshire Scouts will be walking single file to the top of Butser Hill. And from July 28 to August 8 some members will be taking part in the World Scout Jamboree which this year takes place at Highlands Park in Essex. Forthy thousand Scouts from all over the world will converge on the site for the special event and afterwards Japanese Scouts will be staying in Hampshire and hopefully meeting Petersfield District members. Closer to home the lst Petersfield Scout Group, one of the oldest groups in the world which celebrates its own 100th birthday next, is hoping to mark the occasion with a special project. Members are planning to tody and improve their environment, and plant bulbs and plants including a 100 in narcissi for 100 years of scouting. As all the preparations continue across the area two members have taken a closer look at how the movement has evolved. Seventy-three-year-old George Pickup , has been involved with the Scouts for more than 60 years. He joined as a Scout in Penmaenmawr, Wales and remained been a strong supporter after moving to Petersfield in l961. He is now Petersfield District President and past chairman and a member of the Petersfield District Fellowship George remembers the days of Bob-A-Job, of Scouts in shorts, smokey camp fires and bread and jam suppers. Gemma Bignell is a 27-year-old Scout leader at Liss who has to cope with all the rules and regulations that go with keeping Scouts safe in the 21st century. But both share the same love of scouting that has kept the movement growing for a century.