CENTENARY CAMP

The group enjoyed a fantastic 3 days at Linnet Clough, at the largest Centenary celebration in the country. Over 2500 cubs, scouts, explorers and leaders took part in the camp, with a further 1000 day visitors, including the Beaver colony, joining in. One of the highlights was the successful attempt to break the world record at simultaneous pancake tossing, setting a new record at 1700 pancakes tossed for 30 seconds! Other activities included high and low ropes, archery, shooting, craft activities, wild bird displays, circus tricks, horse carriage rides, mountain biking, quad bikes, camp fire, and a talent show of 100 stars. Another successful activity was having the cubs and scouts camping together, allowing the older members to demonstrate the ‘art of camping’ to younger members! The group will encourage and organise a yearly joint cub and scout camp to build upon this achievement.

BEAVERS

The beavers had a great day when they attended the centenary camp on the Sunday. The weather could have been better as it was rather cold but at least the rain held off. There were loads for them to do and the activities they carried out included rides in the pony and trap, crawling in the maze, glass painting, making fun hats, badge making, trampolining, and laser quest. Occasionally we revisited our camp site, mainly for the leaders to sit down and have a rest.

During the beaver closing ceremony we were pleased to see that, three of Tessa’s beavers, were invested by the County Commissioner, John Smith. Tessa has been learning the ropes with us and has set up a new beaver colony in Chorlton. At the end of the ceremony a balloon for each beaver attending was released and flew off into the sky. It was a pity that the beavers were unable to fly back to their parents at the end of the day, as they were really weary by the time we had walked them off the site to be met at the station.

Don’t forget to look at all the photos of the event on the web; you can then see what a great event it was!

Next term will be a difficult one for the beaver colony. Sue is going to Australia for a year, Tessa will be finishing with us to run her own colony and Peter and Issy who were doing their Duke of Edinburgh service with us have now finished. We have several possibilities to solve the problem but it needs parental support. We can have parents who are willing to be helpers on a regular basis, a rota for all parents or we can divide the colony into two and run the same programme over two weeks. The latter being that beavers attend once a fortnight. We have no spare leaders from other sections as they are already doing other things within the district and the county to give us support on a regular basis.

If you are able to help at all please have a word with one of the leaders as we would like to continue with the colony as it stands. Your help will be greatly appreciated.

CUBS

This term has been perhaps one of busiest, that I can ever remember. There have been so many exciting activities it is hard to remember them all, but I think it is fair to say there has been something for everyone to enjoy. The district camp fire at the beginning of May was a great evening and very well attended by many of the local cub & beaver groups, I’m certain that the event will be repeated as so any children enjoyed it.

The Centenary camp was an unmissable experience for both the boys and the leaders. In total 14 cubs from our group attended and camped with the scouts, an experience for both parties in it self. The 3 days were not so much packed with activities but more shoe horned. The boys could try quad biking, low ropes assault course, climb a 60ft climbing wall along with many other craft and fun activities. Both the children and leaders returned exhausted but having had a marvellous time at an extraordinary event.

The cubs are currently following a centenary program that many groups up and down the country will also be doing. The activities will include mission impossible – were the cubs are set some both physically but mentally challenging tasks, Moral dilemmas – where we will in small groups discuss some of the more challenging issues that the boys are likely to face at home and at school. There will also be lots of fun activities such as a sixes night where each six will chose their most favourite games to play and a evening learning how to improve their observational skill and become super spies.

SCOUTS

DIDSBURY FESTIVAL SATURDAY 9^TH JUNE

The group will be running their usual excellent burger and hotdog stand at this year Didsbury festival and any help from parents and scouts will be very much appreciated. We will meet at the Scout hut at 10 O’clock to pack up the equipment and then onto the park to set up. The scouts will also be running fund raising events from the stall to gain money for their Jubilee trip to London. All scouts wanting to go on the London trip must be involved in the fund raising activities which will be organised and run by the 2 senior scouts, Joshua Kidd and Toby Milner. This is one of our only fund raising events so please come and support our stall.

COMMUNITY PROJECT

On Tuesday 12^th June, the scouts will be meeting at Fletcher Moss car park on Millgate Lane at 6.45pm, pick up from car park at 8pm, they will be helping to clear an area of the park from Japanese Knotweed. This activity will go towards their Gold Chief Scout’s Award, The Community Challenge award, and the Group Environment award. We have set up links with the park wardens and hope to be involved with community work several times a year. We would like to extend this activity to any Cubs who would also like to become involved. Please bring gardening gloves, if possible, although some will be provided along with drinks and cake!

M&S BAG PACKING JUNE 16^TH/17^TH

To help raise funds for the scout trip to visit the Jubilee celebration, and a stay in London, the troop will be packing bags in Marks and Spencer’s Didsbury on Saturday 16th and Sunday 17^th of June. All scouts wanting to go on the trip must help at sometime during the weekend. The senior scouts will draw up a work rota and will start packing bags at 10.30am. This proved to be a very successful and lucrative event for the Explorers and we hope will bring down the cost of the London trip for the scouts. We are aiming to raise £100 per scout leaving a cost of £80 for parents to meet.

SANDYWAY SCOUT CAMP 6^TH / 8^TH JULY

This will be a ‘back to basics’ camp where scouts will be given the opportunity to learn and develop camping and cooking. We will also be giving scouts training in orienteering skills and they will have a practice hike in preparation for their independent trek in the Peck District. After this training Scouts will be able to take part in an independent expedition without a leader (although leaders will be a short drive away and in radio contact), with an overnight stay in a hostel. This will gain them their Expedition Challenge which is needed for their Gold Chief Award as well as their Orienteering badge. It will be possible for scouts to visit for the day rather than camp for the weekend, in order to gain orienteering skills and practice. The independent overnight hike will take place either during the summer holidays or the second weekend back after the summer break.