{"alias":"blogEntry","byline":"","standfirst":"We\u2019re so pleased to welcome polar explorer, Ben Saunders, to our family of Scout Adventurers.","content":{"layouts":[{"type":"singleColumn","areas":[{"items":[{"gridType":"gridImageBlock","gtmId":"gtmId","gtmClass":"gtmClass","image":"/media/12985/andyward_i.jpg","width":4928,"height":3280,"altText":"","caption":"Photo credit: Andy Ward","link":null},{"gridType":"RichTextBlock","content":"\u003Cp\u003EBen, who was a Scout as a young person, holds several records for his polar exploits, including the longest solo Arctic journey and longest human powered polar journey in history \u2013 at 1,795 miles.\u003C/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EIn 2013\u201314, Ben successfully completed the route to the South Pole and back that defeated both Captain Scott and Sir Ernest Shackleton in the early 20\u003Csup\u003Eth\u003C/sup\u003E century. Having stood at both the North and South poles, he\u2019s a genuine trailblazer in the world of exploration and adventure, and is now a sought after speaker, writer and consultant, while also planning new adventures.\u003C/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EA Fellow of the Royal Geographic Society, he\u2019s supported several charities over the years, including Scouts at a local level. He\u2019s now looking forward to sharing his stories and insights at a national level with young people and volunteers, inspiring the next generation of adventurers. \u00A0\u003C/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E\u2018Adventure is central to everything I\u2019ve done,\u2019 says Ben, \u2018and the lessons which set me on that path we learnt in Scouts. I want to encourage and inspire other people to live more adventurously. This doesn\u2019t mean going on expeditions \u2013 but just being a bit braver. We are all astronauts on the same bit of rock flying at 66,000 miles an hour round the sun, and if that isn\u2019t an extraordinary, shared adventure then I don\u2019t know what is!\u2019\u003C/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EBen also has some fond memories of being a Scout himself: \u2018We used to do wide games, which I loved. Some of the best things we did were pioneering competitions with poles and ropes to see how high we could get a person off the ground. Scouts was definitely the highlight of the week.\u2019\u00A0\u00A0\u003C/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022/news/2021/march/living-life-more-adventurously/\u0022 title=\u0022Living life more adventurously\u0022\u003ERead our interview with Ben\u003C/a\u003E, and join him for a special Scouts Facebook Live at 6.30pm on Thursday 25 March \u003Ca rel=\u0022noopener\u0022 href=\u0022https://www.facebook.com/scoutassociation\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003Eon our Facebook page.\u003C/a\u003E\u00A0\u003C/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EFind out more about Ben: \u003Ca href=\u0022http://www.bensaunders.com\u0022\u003Ebensaunders.com\u003C/a\u003E and \u003Ca href=\u0022https://twitter.com/polarben\u0022\u003E@polarben\u003C/a\u003E\u003C/p\u003E","gtmId":"","gtmClass":""},{"gridType":"callToAction","gtmId":"","gtmClass":"","buttonText":"Check out our other news this month","buttonLink":{"name":"March","id":null,"url":"/news/2021/march/","newWindow":false,"target":null},"colour":{"value":"490499","label":"490499"},"alignment":"left"}]}],"config":null}]},"searchDescription":null,"pageType":null,"location":null,"versionDate":"25 March 2021","reviewDate":null,"furtherReading":[],"relatedLinks":[],"id":48653,"nodeName":"To the ends of the Earth: Announcing Ben Saunders as our new Scout Adventurer","title":"To the ends of the Earth: Announcing Ben Saunders as our new Scout Adventurer","type":"blogEntry","image":{"url":"/media/12985/andyward_i.jpg?width=800\u0026height=450\u0026v=1d9becd17b9dc90","caption":"Andyward I","type":"jpg","size":7640409,"width":4928,"height":3280,"altText":""},"assets":null,"headerOptions":{"headerTitle":"To the ends of the Earth: Announcing Ben Saunders as our new Scout Adventurer","headerSubTitle":null,"headerCta":null,"headerCtaText":null,"headerCtaLink":null,"headerBackgroundColour":null,"showSEOImage":false,"headerBackgroundImage":null,"quickLinks":null},"subHeader":"Announcing Ben Saunders as our new Scout Adventurer","browserTitle":null,"silktide":"eyJjbXMiOiJVbWJyYWNvIiwiZWRpdG9yVXJsIjoiaHR0cHM6Ly9wcm9kLWNtcy5zY291dHMub3JnLnVrLy91bWJyYWNvIy9jb250ZW50L2NvbnRlbnQvZWRpdC80ODY1MyJ9","canonicalUrl":"https://www.scouts.org.uk/news/2021/march/to-the-ends-of-the-earth-announcing-ben-saunders-as-our-new-scout-adventurer/"}