Archive for June, 2009

From Sharon Hickton -

Thank you for the lovely gifts that I received at the AGM. I still cannot believe that I didn’t twig on and Paul kept it a secret.  I was very touched and yet again many thanks to you all.

Last night we held the Group’s AGM.

As well as the usual item we had a couple of special ones.

When it came time to elect the Group Executive Committee each of the committee members got given a hat to show who they are and what jobs they did. Nick ended up wearing three! Group Scout Leader, Group Chairman & Group Secretary. He’s been relieved of one of these already.

After all the official stuff was done, we had some awards to give out. The first, and most important, was the Cub of the Year Award. This is given every year to one of the older Cubs who will be moving on to the Troop soon. The award is given to the Cub who excels in all they do throughout the year.

The next award was a surprise as Sharon, our Cub Leader was given her 25 Years Service Award. The District Commissioner gave her the badge and certificate and the Group gave her a bunch of flowers, a framed photo of all the Leaders and a bottle of wine! The flowers were presented by David Wood who recruited her to be an Assistant all those years ago, the photo was presented by the Cub who got the Cub of the Year Award and the wine by Nick as Group Scout Leader. She was most surprised we’d done anything!

Next came John our Assistant Scout Leader who was presented his Woodbadge. This now means we have 5 Leaders in the Group with their Woodbadge – the most we’ve ever had!

Finally Nick our GSL has been awarded the Award for Merit.

Well done to all and the rest of the photos are in the Gallery.

The oldest video of the Troop has recently been found. Watch it here -

The week before their camp the Scouts spent a day at Eardley End Farm brushing up on their camping skills.

We all met at 10.45 and walked across the fields to the Woods, followed by fifty nosey young bulls!

Once in the woods we set about getting wood for the fires and then lighting them. This took a couple of the groups some time because they didn’t bring very much wood back with them and sometimes none at all! However, all the of the groups managed to cook their food eventually and one group even turned most of it to charcoal.

After Dinner we did a few bases and then packed up and set off across the fields chased by the cows back to the Farm.

Photos are in the Gallery.

A couple of the pages in the Gallery have been updated to incude more and better photos of the events.

See the Group Camp in 1988, the Scout’s London Trips in 2001 and 2003 and the Family Evening in 2003.

Thanks to the Beaver and three Cubs who turned up today to help at the Church’s summer fair. We raised £33 for the Church funds.

The Beavers and Cubs have spent this evening walking round Westport Lake to raise money for the PDSA.

The Beavers walked around the larger lake and then the small one and then played some games while the Cubs walked around the large lake four times.

We’re not sure how much money the Beavers and Cubs raised yet, but we’re sure they have raised a considerable amount. All had a great evening out.

This in itself is not a very unusual news item. Indeed we invested three new Scouts at the weekend on camp.

However, our newest member won’t be joining us every week as it is a bit far for him to travel! He is a Scout from Catalonia in Spain and is staying with one of our Scouts who is a friend of his. He was able to join the Scouts on their recent camp at Gradbach.

Therefore we decided to make him an honorary member of the Troop and gave him a red necker, all the investiture badges, a one Nights Away badge and an Outdoor Challenge badge.

A welcome addition to the Troop.

As we’ve put a few videos on YouTube recently, we’ve now got our own YouTube channel. To celebrate this, a new video has been published which show some scenes from a Scout Camp at Kibblestone in July 2004!

Also from that camp are some new and higher quality photos published in the Gallery for the first time. See here.

The Scouts have just had a weekend camping at Gradbach.

We started on Friday evening by investing three new members of the Troop. This was done in a slightly different manner as they were standing in the River Dane, which runs by the campsite, at the time!

After the investitures, the Scouts then set about setting up camp. And getting covered in midges!

Once everything was set up it was time for supper and then bed.

On Saturday after breakfast we went for a hike. We walked to Danebridge and on up to the Roaches and then back to the campsite. By the time we got back, everyone was rather hot, so it was time to mess around in the river!

After tea, we went for another short walk to Lud’s Church. Although no where near dark when we returned, it was time for a campfire, supper and bed. There weren’t so many midges around either!

Sunday morning after breakfast brought a quick Scout’s Own, kit inspection and then time to strike camp.

Photos are in the Gallery.

Many congratulations to Assistant Scout Leader John who has just completed his Woodbadge!

As a Woodbadge holder, John is now a member of 1st Gilwell Park Scout Group!

Congratulations!