2014 The Awesome Year That Was In Scouting

Father Christmas visits North Baddesley Beavers

15th Romsey Beaver Scouts held their Christmas party last Tuesday and Father Christmas came and handed out some presents.

Cubs make their own lanterns

As part of the Romsey late night shopping evening a team of hard working volunteers organised a lantern parade through the town. The pack had an artist visit for two meetings to help make and cover the lanterns as part of a community project. We were tasked with decorating the creations with trees to make the forest for Red Riding Hood as part of the pantomime theme. Matthew took the microphone from the compere in the Market Place to explain we were from 1^st Romsey Cubs. Wellow Cubs also took part and were singing on route.

First Romsey - Shoeboxes for operation Christmas Child

All Scouts Promise "To help other people"

 
This Christmas 1st Romsey Scouts have taken this ideal literally and have prepared & donated gift boxes to be distributed as part of the Operation Christmas Child programme run by the International Relief charity Samaritan's Purse .
A speaker came to address the troop, and described a bit about the organization, and how some very simple things we take for granted can make a really big difference to those less fortunate. It was also interesting to hear some detail of the logistics of how the boxes get from the UK to where they are going. After this Scouts brought various gift items

along to their meeting, and then spent an evening packing and wrapping the boxes. Although we don't yet know where the boxes will end up, we hope to find out eventually, as all boxes are tracked as they are delivered.

 
The intention is also that taking part will count towards part of the promise badge.The picture shows Scouts from 1st Romsey Troop, with the boxes they have prepared, just before they were taken to a collection point.

Mike Page Jones

1st Romsey

Greeen Blue Peter Badges for the group

There was great excitement last Thursday as the postman arrived at the homes of Beavers, Cubs & Scouts from 3rd Romsey Scout Group.  In the post were letters for members of 3rd Romsey who had taken part in the Himalayan Balsam pulling and attached to these letters were GREEN Blue Peter Badges.

We have helped Catherine Chatters of the Hampshire & Isle of White Trust to clear balsam at Newtown in the New Forest and at the Blackwater River at Ower.  The Scouts & Cubs braved very wet weather last year and the newest Beaver members of the Group joined them in blazing sunshine & stinging nettles this year to help clear this very invasive plant.  The Scouts & Cubs learnt a great deal from the evening and Catherine explained to them the invasiveness of this plant and how it can clog our waterways.  They also did a report for the Scout website and for the local village magazines and the local paper explaining the importance of this work and what they had learnt.  To gain the Blue Peter Badge each Beaver, Cub & Scout had to write a letter or article or draw a picture explaining what activity they had undertaken and how it had benefited the environment and what they had learnt.

It was only on receiving their badges that the Beavers, Cubs & Scouts worked out that they can now apply for a Blue Peter Card and gain free entry (with a paying adult) to many attractions throughout the UK - an added bonus!

Congratulations to all of you!

Sarah Beaman

3rd Romsey Scout Leader - Ashanti Troop

Incident Hike - 1st Romsey

Last month saw First Romsey Scouts braving the elements for a variation of the 'incident hike' theme.

Having been practicing a bit of pioneering and the use of gas stoves and lanterns at the HQ it seemed like a good idea
to incorporate this into more of a realistic exercise, now the nights are properly dark.

After arriving at the Black Hill Road car park, Scouts divided into 3 teams and each team was issued with a subtly different set of instructions,
either to start an activity, or to hike off on a predetermined bearing, to seek out a particular cache of equipment and instructions for a challenge.

Hidden around the 'course' were some kits of parts for emergency basha shelter building, in orange survival bags, illuminated by a glow stick.

Scouts had to find the right kit, and follow the instructions to build the shelter, to the satisfaction of nearby adult, before continuing round the course to the next challenge.

All teams that completed the course in time managed to
a) build a tripod to hang a lantern for morse signalling, (tripods OK, signalling less successful, perhaps we should revisit this !!)
b) to build an emergency shelter large enough to protect the team, and
c) to make and consume a cup of cocoa each.

Although not all teams did things in the same order or the same places, they would all do all of the challenges at some point in the evening.

Due to one compass that had lost its magnetism (!) one team came in rather later than planned.
Hopefully once warmed up and dried out everyone who came will decide they had fun after all.
At last we know where to improve for next time !

As always, of course, thanks are due to all leaders and parents who kept  this running smoothly,
and to the youngsters who gave it their best shot.


Mike Page-Jones,
1st Romsey.

Hannah Kentish, The Scout Association’s first ever UK Youth Commissioner

Hannah Kentish, The Scout Association’s first ever UK Youth Commissioner, says hello...
Getting started

It’s extremely exciting to finally be able to announce my new role on the National Team, working closely with Wayne Bulpitt, Matt Hyde and Sir Alan Craft. The past month has been an absolute whirlwind of learning for me as I’ve met with Association Trustees, Wayne’s team and a whole host of staff members at HQ to prepare for the launch today. I’m particularly looking forward to getting started with my deputies, Jay and Jagz (pictured above with me), as we embark on this awesome journey, working towards a Movement shaped even further by young people in partnership with adults.

 

My first official visit
It was also a great pleasure to join the Welsh Youth Council at the ScoutsWales AGM this weekend, in my first official visit as the UK Youth Commissioner (see if you can spot Wayne in our selfie below!). It was the first of many visits I will be making around the UK to meet as many young people (and adults too!) as possible, who are striving to make an impact on Scouting in their local areas, as well as for me to learn a bit more about some of the great youth involvement projects and events which are out there already.


Stay in touch
As it’s my first blog, now is the perfect opportunity to share with you the best ways to keep up to date with what I’m getting involved in as your UK Youth Commissioner. You can follow me on Twitter @hpkentish and like my Facebook page at facebook.com/HannahKentishUKYC – both of which I will be updating regularly.
I hope you’re as excited as I am about what’s to come in the near future; I’m thrilled to be playing a leading role in a movement that provides 450,000 young people across the UK the opportunity for everyday adventure that, even if they don’t know it yet, will change their lives forever.