It’s Sunday, and we’ve got your round-up of reminders and information about the coming week of Scouting, plus a recap of some of this week’s meetings and some other events.

Group (All sections)

Adult support

Across the group we have a lot of young people; we’ve got lots of wonderful volunteers who freely give up their time to support them – we are very grateful of them, but we do need more adult support so that we don’t burn out the existing team. All sections, and therefore the young people, would benefit from additional adult volunteers. If you could become either an occasional helper (non-uniform) or regular leader (uniformed) we would love to hear from you, please. In the meantime, the parent rota used in Beavers will shortly be implemented for other sections to help out.

Mother’s Day tea

We are sorry to report that this event has had to be cancelled. If you’ve booked and paid for a place, the event organisers will be able to arrange a refund with you.

Group camp

This year’s group will be at Walesby. We shared a “save the date” previously; in the next couple of weeks, you’ll receive an invite for your young person. As a reminder, and for new members of the group, it’ll be 12th to 14th July.

Back in the here and now, let’s take a look at the coming week:

The week ahead (24th March 2019 onwards)

Beavers

Section meetings

All Beavers will be working to complete their disability awareness badge, by looking at sign language and other related badge requirements.

Future Beaver events

Bunny hunt – Advance warning that we will again be having our Easter Bunny Hunt this year. It will take place on the 9th April 18:30 to 20:00. We will be meeting at Cubley Hall in the new part of their building and coming back to there but we will be out so strong shoes and a coat will be required. Note all colonies will meet on the same day that week to join together for the event. Parents who can come and help walk with a group of beavers please contact Brian or Amy.

Cubs

Section meetings

Bella Vista & Alegre – will be meeting at their usual times at the scout hut for a craft based evening. We don’t want to spoil the surprise by giving too much away.

Raptors – please await confirmation, we might have double booked a drumming workshop and slightly more sedate activities around Mothers day and random act of kindness. ‘Good deeds’ in line with the cub scout law.

Future Cub events

None to highlight at this time

Scouts

Section meetings

Enigma – are meeting twice this week. Those who have booked a place will be going to the Amazon Distribution Centre on Monday evening. And, similarly, those who’ve booked a place for Zorbing will be at Stocksbridge Leisure Centre on Wednesday. Scouts taking part in Zorbing need to make sure they bring £3 (correct change only) [if they’ve not already paid online] plus a towel, swimming costume and t-shirt they can wear in the pool.

Wibbles – will be running bases to improve their map skills in preparation for a hike after the Easter holidays.

Viernes – will most likely be trying their hands at pyrography.

Future Scout events

Alton Towers – deposits are now very overdue; places that have been booked and for which no deposit has received (by the 30th March) will be cancelled, but the deposit still due. Bank transfers only at this late stage, please – details in the event letter. As per the email earlier today (Sunday), we’ve now an adult coming who can drive a minibus, therefore, we’ve limited transport we can provide for an additional £15 per young person. Places are “first come first served” and must be requested via email to Shauna. We will confirm the allocation of seats once the bus is “full”.

Baggerwood expedition challenge weekend – Bookings are now closed, and payments for this are due this week, please. Bank transfer really helps with admin; see the event letter and briefing pack for details. You can return completed consent and medical forms by email, as per the event briefing pack, or drop paper copies to your section leader this week.

Scouts go hopping mad – as an end of term treat, all three Scout troops will be going to Air Haus (near Meadowhall) to take part in the Total Wipeout, Giant slide, inflatable and Ninja Warrior style course. The event page is here, and you’ll either have received or shortly will receive, an invite via Online Scout Manager’s Parent Portal.

Explorers

Section meetings

Explorers are hoping to look at global issues but this may change depending on leader availability

Future Explorer events

Alton Towers – deposits are now very overdue; places that have been booked and for which no deposit has received (by the 30th March) will be cancelled, but the deposit still due. Bank transfers only at this late stage, please – details in the event letter. As per the email earlier today (Sunday), we’ve now an adult coming who can drive a minibus, therefore, we’ve limited transport we can provide for an additional £15 per young person. Places are “first come first served” and must be requested via email to Shauna. We will confirm the allocation of seats once the bus is “full”.
With the reminders out-of-the-way, let’s recap the week.

This week:

Zorbing continues

Beavers from our Wednesday colony went to Stocksbridge Leisure Centre to take part in the Zorbing. All had a great time, and the parents/guardians who watched from the balcony enjoyed the tropical conditions. Phew, what a scorcher!

Disability Awareness

Castors started their Disability Awareness badge this week. They heard about Steve Judge, a Cub Scout leader who, after being involved in a horrific car crash, is now a disabled athlete and two times World Champion in the Triathlon. We wrote our names using the Braille alphabet and tried to read some Braille. We also discussed how we could make the scout hut better for people with disabilities. We also tried drawing and writing with our feet. They tried in ear defenders to mimic hearing loss and used goggles obscured by Vaseline to ‘see’ what it’s like to have fuzzy vision. It was a great night with some deep rhythms coming from the cub drumming session next door.

Problem-solving

This week the Raptors had games themed around team working and problem-solving. We also said goodbye to James G who is moving on to Scouts.
Extra note to Parent/Carers we are looking to see if any parents want to volunteer as occasional helpers, or even a full leader level of help? If this interests you email Rob Flewitt to meet up and discuss.

Phat Beats

Bella Vista and Alegre cubs both enjoyed a drumming workshop hosted by Katie Mallard. We all had a fantastic musical experience. Bella Vista would like to extend their thanks to Carolyn, Alison and Becs for coming along to help this week.

Six-figure skillz

This week Enigma Scouts tackled map reading and learned about the different symbols and lines on a map.  We also tried our hand at 6 figure grid references.

Night at the Museum

Beavers from all three colonies, plus a dozen from Silkstone, went to Weston Park Museum for a sleepover on Friday. They had a fantastic time taking part in challenges, team building skills and even got to sleep next to creatures such as the Woolly Mammoth! For full details, and to see all the pictures, you can see the following posts here and here.

Monopoly Run – a retrospective

The team was exhausted following the Monopoly Run in London last weekend. Over the course of this past week, we’ve been collating some of the young people’s thoughts regarding the event and photographs. You can have a look at these here.

Thank you

Many thanks to Dave and Richard for taking the time to refit the roof (again!) to the container. The recent storm took it off – sadly, we do have water ingress to the container and therefore we need to arrange a shorter maintenance day in the near future to empty the container and address the contents before they are damaged.
And finally:

Ghana Outlook update

We were delighted to learn that some of the desks we helped to fund through the collection at our Christmas Service, were delivered to the school in Ghana this week. If you’re on Facebook, you can see the handover here.