About Us

Group 66 Benavente was founded on 8 January 1982 by Professor Reis Vaz.

This urge to camp and to be in contact with nature began many years earlier, when Professor Reis Vaz ran holiday camps together with the Town Council. Those activities drew more than 200 people. Given that response, Professor Reis Vaz felt the need to give young people a way to stay busy and in contact with nature — not only during the holidays but throughout the year, with all kinds of activities.

So he brought together a handful of people — João Paulo Galvão, João Guilherme, Raul Santos, Rui Pinto and Isabel Bandeira — and contacted the Scout Association of Portugal to find out whether a group could be opened in Benavente. A troop of the National Scout Corps had existed in Benavente before, but was by then inactive. At the time it was possible to open either directed or non-directed groups: 66 Benavente opened as a directed group, with Professor Reis Vaz as Group President and Raul Santos as its first Group Leader.

In a second phase we began to count on other leaders such as Humberto Condeixa, Manuel Palmar and Joaquim Correia, among others — who had been Scouts themselves — and who carried the project forward, bringing Scouting as Baden-Powell founded it to this Ribatejo village.

The first meetings took place at Escola Duarte Lopes, the old preparatory school. The first headquarters was a private house lent to us on Rua de Baixo ao Poço, and in those early years several places hosted the Movement, granted by the Town Council: the building beside the old church, the old pavilions of the secondary school, the old slaughterhouse. The headquarters that housed us for many years was on Rua Dr. Manuel Lopes de Almeida and, about ten years ago, we moved to the Benavente Scout Activities Park in Camarinhais, where we have a vast green area and where we host Groups from the Scout Association of Portugal and from the National Scout Corps, and where many Scouting activities have taken place.

To date we have had Raul Santos, Humberto Condeixa, João Paulo Galvão, Manuel Palmar, João Paulo Claudino, Luís Marques and Ivete Mateus as Group Leaders. Pedro Fernandes currently holds the role.

The Group’s first large activities were the Easter and summer holiday camps — the last of them run by Professor Reis Vaz with the Group already officially open and running. From then on it was one activity after another, right up to today: from north to south of the country, on the islands, abroad taking part in international activities, with regular participation in social solidarity work, joint activities with other associations, fundraising activities and plain enjoyment. Group 66 Benavente now has many years behind it and a great deal of history lived by the young people and adults of this region.

Over these years, dozens upon dozens of young people from Benavente and the surrounding area have made our history — full of moments that mattered in the lives of everyone who passed through, and in the community too. We have played an important and lasting part in our society, with strong partnerships with the Municipality of Benavente, which has always supported us, with the Benavente Parish Council, the Barrosa Parish Council, the Santo Estêvão Parish Council, the Benavente Volunteer Fire Brigade and the Clube União Artística Benaventense (CUAB). Institutions that are part of our life and that have been indispensable to the Group running well.

Right now we are very happy and very fortunate to have one of the largest activity sites in the Scout Association of Portugal, where we have everything needed to practise good Scouting and to host groups from all over the country.

Throughout the life of Group 66 Benavente, dozens of leaders have passed through and contributed — and still contribute — to the Group’s full existence and good running.

At Group 66 and at the Benavente Scout Activities Park you will always be welcome.

Left handshakes,

Group Scout Leader