Tag: scouts

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Wessex Heartbeat

At present young people with ongoing heart problems, on reaching the age of 16yrs are no longer treated on the childrens wards but are treated on adult wards. In practice this means that a patient aged 16yrs could be in a bed next to a person aged 80yrs. The aim of the appeal is to raise enough money to equip a ward specifically for young persons aged 16yrs to 24yrs including items to relieve the boredom of being regularly in hospital for long spells. You will see that young people will benefit from this ward. As an organisation for young people we in the Scout Movement are well placed to appreciate the importance of this appeal, and inevitably at some point in the future some of our young people could well need such care. Therefore during the coming year we would urge all groups to do what they can to support the cause. There are leaflets available and wrist bands for sale. If anyone wants supplies please contact me. Many Thanks.

George Longhurst.
On behalf of the District Team.

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Exbury Ghost Train

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We have again been invited to haunt the Ghost Train this year. It will happen all over the half term holiday. Last year over 60 scouts and explorers took part and I had help from at least 10 leaders. Exbury’s donation to the District was £450 worth of climbing equipment soon to be put to use on Summit. Each scout who took part has received a thank you letter and a complimentary ticket for their family to visit the Gardens.

The notices will be going out soon and I am looking forward to another very tiring but very enjoyable week with our young people. Adult help would always be welcome.

If you want more information phone me on 023 80771121.

Geoff Johnson of Endeavour

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Grey Owl’s Report

The term has started with a Fun Day at Ferny Crofts, with most of the activities run by the Ferny Crofts instructors. 60 Beavers attended from 6 different Colonies. The day was broken down into 4 one and a half hour sessions.

There was a session on the climbing wall which included the Beavers helping with the belaying.

Another group did backwoods cooking in the campfire circle. They learnt about fire and campfire safety and then cooked a twist, a rasher of bacon and finished with toasted marshmallows.

There was pond dipping and mini beast hunting in the woods, very popular.

The 4th session was spent with our own leaders utilising the adventure course and the site.

The weather was perfect and although we had use of the Sky High Conservatory we were able to spend the whole day outside. Seeing our Beaver Scouts sitting around on the field in the sunshine, eating their picnic lunch was a lovely sight. They looked so happy and were chattering and laughing with each other.

At the end of the day the Beaver Scouts said they had had a fantastic day and didn’t want to go home!!

Thanks to Gail for arranging this and to all the Leaders who helped give our children a super time.

The Christingle service will now be on Sunday 9th December at 3.30pm at St James Parish Church.

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Roverang 2013

The team is now working on next year and we would like your permission to put on Roverang 2013 at the Nuffield Theatre between the 2-6 April 2013 and invite the young people and adults in your District to take part.

Due to the developing all inclusive ethos of both Scouting and Guiding it is our intention to trial opening this year’s show up to a wider age range of young people. It is, therefore our intention to open a new section in this year’s show for Guides and Scouts with an age range of 10 to 14 years.

The Children’s cast will remain open to Brownies and cubs with a maximum age limit of 10 ½ by the week of the show and Adult cast will continue to have a lower age limit of 14 as in recent years.

Roverang is an amateur production performed by members of the Guide and Scout Association.

Producer: Sam Weller, E-mail samwellerjr@googlemail.com Tel: 07885469309

Asst Producer: Sue Parker, E-mail sue@summit59.co.uk Tel: 07789681047

Asst Producer: Gary Foote, E-mail garyfoote123@o2.co.uk Tel: 07872104515

We hope that, in the spirit of both Guiding and Scouting, you will support this trial and if you have any queries or would like to discuss this further please feel free to contact either myself, Sue or Gary on the numbers or email below.

If we don’t hear from you we will assume that you are happy for us to go ahead with the show and make contact with the leaders and young people in your District or Division.

Many Thanks in anticipation of your Support.

Sam, Sue and Gary

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Fly goes to a Wedding

David had been a member of the Seahawk Venture Unit of the 13th Group when they were in the old West District. They were an unruly bunch, a bit wayward at times but did some really good things. Above all they had a real friendship and loyalty to one-another and loved their Scouting. 6 members of the old Unit were there, two ex-leaders and some who were in the Unit before or after David and his friends. Naomi, Jason and “Bob” were around at the changeover to Explorer Scouting.

Keiron, now leader of Network, was Best Man and Harris and James were ushers. James and Gemma, who now live in Australia, had come all this way just

for the Wedding. The old friends from the Unit stood solidly together and worked hard, determined to make the occasion a success for David and his Bride.

This Picture includes 9 Queen’s Scouts

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If anyone doubts the good things that Scouting brings about they should have witnessed this happy reunion of a group of old friends from 15 to 20 years ago.

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David met Lynda on a Cycling Meet and it wasn’t that long before he moved his Tree Surgeon business down to Plymouth where Lynda is a teacher. After the Wedding they mounted a tandem and cycled off to the wild blue yonder.

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I am sure that we all wish David and Lynda every happiness in their lives together on their Bicycle built for two.

 

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Himalayan Balsam Bash

Over the course of our five hours both movements worked together in four mini groups. Two groups worked in different areas to pull up the Himalayan Balsam Weed. This is an invasive weed that needs to be cleared on an annual basis to reduce its invasion from riverbanks. This will then allow natural vegetation to thrive for the benefit of all natural insects.

This was simple done by wearing gardening gloves and protective glasses, reaching as far down to the ground as you could. Getting around various obstructions, and pulling to get the roots up. This was much easier than it may sound. Then we just made piles of the weed as tall as Scouts to be sorted by the organisers in charge at a later date.

Another group went on a litter pick armed with grabbing sticks and bags to collect a wide range of rubbish left by either people on picnics or who had just dropped it as they walked through the reserve.

The final group, armed with secateurs and shears, were helping to tidy up the paths by cutting back the bushes etc, which were growing over them, so a clearer pathway for the public to use was established.

During the day all groups rotated to cover each other’s tasks and also have an opportunity to take part in various other roles.

We also took a packed lunch along with us and sat down together to eat during the day. This is when some Scouts (younger ones) and Brownies realised that they knew one another from either their current school, or the Scout had moved onto secondary school, but used to go to the school where the Brownies currently do.

The weather during the day was very kind to us with the sun coming out for the whole time we were there.

At the very end the Friends of Monksbridge, who we were helping out, gave some of the children who had not left earlier, a small coke in the local pub garden to say thanks. They said that we had done much more then they had expected, but our number of 16 Scouts and Leaders along with 11 Brownies and Leaders attended (making 27 of us) did help.

They also asked whether we were up for it next year. Everyone seemed happy with this idea.

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Himalayan Balsam Bash

All in all a good day for both the Scouts and Brownies showing the local community what we can get up to and showing them that some of the local children do care about the environment and are happy to help clear it up, and that both movements can work together in harmony to a common goal.

From Russ.

29th SL/GSL.

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Beaver Loggerheads

The theme of this year’s competition was events of the 60 years of the Reign of our Queen.

The day started with each team making a colony flag and a lunar space module, more on that later.

Now the competition began in earnest. There were 8 twenty minute bases for the teams to complete.

  1. Everest, the 1st ascent by a British team announced on Coronation day 1953. Each party of Beavers ascended the hill in the enclosure on a fixed rope with the help of Sherpa’s Chris and Mike, and planted their flag on the top.
  2. The Garden Party, this was in 2 parts, first they put up “The Marquee”, a dining shelter, and decorated it with Bunting.
  3. Then they all went to make and serve tea to The Queen, Gail, dressed in her finery with a crown.
  4. The Crown Jewels, seeking gem stones from the mine and making a necklace for the Queen.
  5. The Great Train Robbery of 1963, where they followed a trail of flags through the enclosure to find the stolen mail bags – watch out for the robbers, ably played by Claire and David.
  6. The Moon Landing in 1969, using their lunar module made earlier in the day and landing it on the moon, a giant exercise ball!
  7. The Channel Tunnel opened in 1994, tunnelling from both sides and meeting in the middle, then taking a train through and learning some French words.
  8. And finally designing and building a Lego (1958) castle for the Queen, thanks to Lee for his engineering help.

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There was a break halfway through the activities for a Jubilee picnic lunch.
As all Beavers want to play football we finished the day with a 1966 World Cup penalty shootout.

Each base scored points, the flags and lunar modules were marked, and the goals scored all went to the total. The marks were on team work and results. All bases were completed by all of the teams and resulted in some very happy and tired Beaver Scouts at the end of the day.

A rare Jubilee event – IT HARDLY RAINED ALL DAY.

Quote of the day on a mobile phone: “I’m at a butchers shop can you tell me how to get to Wilverley?”          Answer “Ask the butcher”

They did and he drew a map for them and they arrived just in time for the start.
 

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As usual it was a close run competition that was finally won by the team from the 29th Colony.

Well done to all the Beavers for their enthusiasm and my thanks to all leaders, helpers, parents and co-opted help from specialist members of other sections of the District, for making it happen and pulling the competition together.

Lin Johnson ADC Beaver Scouts

     
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Gillwell 24

Saturday morning 0900 hrs and the start of the 24 hours of activities. On offer was a wide variety of activities – zorbing, shooting, mountain boarding, AA driving school, scuba diving, trapeze, bushcraft, wood work, fun fair, power kites, internet café, radio station, disco, climbing, cinema, information tents to name some.  Being the ten year anniversary of Explorers, chocolate cake was on offer at the opening ceremony where the latest Scout ambassador was revealed – Ed Stafford. For those who don’t know who this is, this is the chap who walked the length of the Amazon http://www.walkingtheamazon.com/

This year the weather was not really in our favour. The Gilwell site was already a bit of a mud bath on arrival. This steadily got worse as the weekend went on. The rain came and went and then really started in the early hours of Sunday morning resulting in a flooded campsite with many tents under water. 0500 hrs found the leaders up and serving bacon and sausage rolls to not only our own Explorers but also a group from Reigate whose site was completely flooded out and under a couple of feet of water.  The benefits of networking and establishing links around the Scout family. Their leader, Tom, was a former leader in Southampton during his University days. Draw parallels with Glastonbury and IOW.

So 0900 hrs Sunday morning the event closed and we all headed home, very wet, very muddy and very tired. Certainly a weekend to be remembered and, despite the rain and the mud, one that the Explorers really enjoyed.  Next year is already in the diary.

Dave McKeeman

ESL Enterprise

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2nd Scouts Global Badge

Video can be found here.
My fellow leaders and I are very impressed with the effort the scouts have put into this to achieve their global badge, and I am sure you will agree it was worth all the time and effort?  
Nick Owen