A new chief commissioner of scouts of Bermuda will be appointed at the Wesely Methodist Church at 3 p.m. on April 25.

Shinah Simons JP will take over responsibility for every scout leader, scout and cub on the Island and he has participated in all of these capacities during his long history in Bermuda scouting.

Mr. Simons began his scouting adventures when he sought to emulate his older brother Edmund who travelled to America in 1967 to represent Bermuda scouts at the 12th world jamboree in Idaho.

He said he had been around scouting all his life and was so keen he was involved before he was old enough to join.

He was having such a good time he believed the leaders didn?t have the heart to send him home until he was old enough,? he said.

In 1976 when Mr. Simons was 14-years-old he left Bermuda for the first time with the Scouts, going by bus for two weeks across the United States and back again.

?That was a life changing experience,? he said. ?It was then that I vowed that I would make an impact on the lives of others.

?There was a lot to see. It was a mind-shaping experience?.

Mr Simons has travelled with Bermuda cubs three times into the Canadian Rockies. In 1999 he travelled as an Assistant Leader with the Bermuda contingent to the nineteenth World Jamboree in Chile.

In 2001, he certified as a training officer for the Inter-American Region (Canada to South America and the Caribbean of WOSM (World Organisation of the Scout Movement).

Scot leaders are involved with meeting real needs in their communities like, child health, drug abuse prevention, children?s rights, environmental conservation and education, job skills training and literacy.

Mr. Simons thanked his fellow leaders who he has known over the last 22 years.

The family tradition carries on as his son Milen went through the scouts and his wife Michelle is a Brownie leader.