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This page provides access to current and past copies of the the monthly newsletter of the 4th Worcester Park Scout Group plus other reports relating to life at the 4th. The Friends of the Fourth page has copies of their own section's newsletter. 4th News, October 2004Sections
Keith DalyGROUP SCOUT LEADERSome fifteen months ago I had informed the Group that I wished to step down as Group Scout Leader. Unfortunately it has taken some time to find someone who is willing to take on the job and is acceptable to the Group and to the District Commissioner. The search was aided by a decision by Scout HQ to relax the age rules for leaders. I am delighted to announce that Fred Fletcher has agreed to take on the role. Fred is an experienced leader who has been with the Group for nearly thirty years and is popular with both boys and adults alike. Fred is currently visiting relatives in the USA and Australia and will not be returning until the middle of November. He will therefore take on the role from 20th December 2004. We will have a formal handing over at the Christmas Scouts' Own on Sunday 19th December 2004. I will be continuing as Group Scout Leader until that time. JJBAs reported previously The JJB headquarters in Apeldoorn is being officially opened on the 18th September and I am delighted to say that a small contingent from the Group was able to attend the opening ceremony and represent the Group. My thanks to Peter Kinton (Group President), Les Prescott, Alan Avery and Patrick Jacobs for making the effort to be there. I hope they will report back next month. Summer CampsAll three Cub Packs had successful camps during the summer and all boys and leaders came back safe and well. May I once again thank all those leaders and helpers who gave up their time, and leave from work in many cases, to ensure the boys had such a wonderful and memorable experience. ASPEN COLONYAnne Mays (MAYO), Carol Salter (HOLLY)Holly and I both hope you all had a really good summer holiday and that all your plans went well. Going back to what we did in July now seems an age away but here we go. We did some counting of our footsteps down to the bottom of the field. We did a collection of coloured tabs hidden in the field that went down really well and the boys enjoyed the competition between themselves. We have played outside games like Frisbee and football. We have made food including cereal cakes and biscuits - food always goes down well. On our last meeting before the holidays Philip bought down his music deck and played disco music for us and we had party games and party food and drink. We also did some skipping and every boy was able to skip at least a little by the end of the evening. Hopefully the boys all enjoyed their time with us last term and are looking forward to next term with some new activities. DON'T FORGET 19th DECEMBER ASPEN COLONY SCOUTS' OWN ALL BOYS ARE EXPECTED TO
BE THERE BETWEEN 5.45pm and 7.00pm APPROXIMATELY. BIRCH COLONYAnne Richardson (MAPLE)No news this month. CEDAR COLONYAnne PriceNo news this month. ANGLIA PACKBrenda Hunt (AKELA)YOULBURY - AUGUST 2004 - DAILY DIARY (All the boys have a folder where they write up their daily diaries every evening and the following headings are taken from their Shrek 2 folders) Shocking Sunday 10 boys set off in the new minibus for Youlbury Scout Camp Site near Oxford.
We were driven by Keith and accompanied by Philip Crisp, a Scout helper. The
theme this year was the film Shrek 2 and the boys were in three sixes as
follows:
After a tour of the site we had time in the open-air swimming pool and then went back for a barbecue. Manic Monday In the morning the boys learnt compass work with Steve and then each six did a tracking trail which the others had to follow. After lunch we went into Oxford for ice-skating and Akela and Doreen went shopping for some net curtains to screen off the eating area - this was because we were plagued by wasps. After tacking up a heading the net curtain was rigged up and worked really well for the rest of the week. On returning to the site the boys all made bivouacs and the evening was rounded off with bingo - with some fantastic prizes! Terrific Tuesday Tuesday was our visit to Warwick Castle - this is run by the Tussauds Group
and includes some terrific settings such as the Royal Weekend Party and
Kingmaker peopled by waxworks. There are also live presentations by various
medieval characters such as the Red Knight, the Jester, and the Warwick Bowman
etc. Wild Wednesday
In the morning we went to the Natural History Museum in Oxford and Janet our guide told the boys all about skeletons and they had the chance to guess which skeletons she showed belonged to which animal (there was a rabbit, dog, pigeon and vole). They also examined jaws of animals and had to guess by looking at the teeth whether they were carnivores or herbivores. Later the boys had a chance to emulate Robin Hood and took part in archery and in the evening they joined (and won) the site wide game. Terrifying Thursday
Youlbury has its own Scout Museum and the boys had their photos taken with
various cub and scout hats from the past. Later they all managed to climb to the
top of the tower and then had a go on the assault course - as it had previously
been raining they got rather muddy. Frantic Friday Another fine day out- this time to Cotswold Wildlife Park where our first port of call was on the train to see camels, rhino, cheetahs, zebras, wallabies, monkeys etc. Keith Daly our GSL joined us again in the evening, in time to preside over Court, as Judge Daly. William Rainbow was charged with Mouse Abuse (for not eating Mick's lovely strawberry mousse), Matthew Ryan was 'Armless (following a wasp sting on one arm and falling on the other), William Poles was accused of Neglect of an Animal (for not feeding his 'guard dog') and Jake Dukes was accused of Cheating in the Limbo event by not having to duck! Soothing Saturday
All the Leaders agreed that we had had a happy camp. Special thanks to Mick Hunt for being an excellent camp cook as well as to Akela, Doreen, Steve, Carol and Philip Crisp our Scout helper. Thanks also to Keith for driving the mini bus, to Paul and Stephanie, and to Alex who came down just to help put up and take down the camp. The sixes competed for points and although there was not a lot between them Boots were first and also won the Camp Sports. Jake Dukes had only joined Cubs a couple of weeks before camp and coped very well and he was nominated as Cub of the Camp. BROWNSEA PACKLes Prescott (KERICK)Our summer camp this year was held again at Plum Park, near Oxted. We had a very successful time with 18 boys camping from the Sunday to Friday evening. During the week we had a visit from the Farnborough Hawking Company with some birds of prey, so we called our sixes Hawks, Kestrels and Eagles. The boys' first job on arrival was to pitch their tents, the leaders having pitched the rest of the camp on Saturday. In the afternoon the Cubs made signs for their six tents and they then made some badges, under guidance from our former Akela, Hazel. We then had a short Scouts' Own. The site is managed by Surrey Wildlife Trust and on the Sunday evening their Countryside Ranger, Dave, guided the boys and leaders through the adjoining Staffhurst Wood in the dark and we were able to use night vision binoculars. On Monday, we visited the Sevenoaks Wildfowl Reserve. The warden lent us some binoculars and magnifying glasses which came in useful to spot different birds and insects. We made use of the hides and the morning was very interesting. We had our annual visit to Tor Hatch at Shere on Tuesday and used the huge
swimming pool in the back garden and had a picnic lunch on the lawns. In the
afternoon, we returned to camp and the Cubs cooked turkey burgers over wood
fires. On Thursday we visited Oxted and went swimming again - this time at the Tandridge Leisure Centre and in the afternoon we had a camp sports day including using the aerial runway prepared for us by Alan Avery and Ben. CHARTERHOUSE PACKMargaret Pennington (AKELA)No news this month. PURPLE TROOPAlan Avery (Scout Leader)
A thank you to those of you who helped at the fete. Also thank you George and Cameron Day for coming up to North Wales to assist in maintenance on the mountain base in Bethesda; members of the Group have visited this place frequently since 1972. We went golfing along the A3 as our final entertainment of the term. I shall be asking everyone when they may wish to hold a Summer Camp - Spring Bank Holiday or late August? I plan to hold a sleepover again at ½ term and again it will be the Tuesday evening. Well done the following on achieving the following Badges: -
SILVER TROOPPaul Green (Scout Leader)No news this month. EXPLORER UNITAlan Avery (Explorer Scout Leader)The new Executive Committee has been elected as follows:- Chairman: Richard Pennington My thanks to Leigh Wicks for his competent input over the last year and of course his cheery outlook! Some lads came with me to a work weekend at the Great London S.W. Mountain
base in Bethesda. Our highlight this year was of course the Summer Expedition; On completion of the 4-day we all went to various families for home hospitality. We all joined forces for a ramble but got rained off and Ben and I were taken to a spa that was meant to be good for the heart! It was a hot spring containing oxide and was reddy-brown! We then moved on 70km to Banska Stavinia and stayed in the roof of an old Scout house in the town. There were various lakes that were resorts and a battered pedlo boat cost 50p for ½ hour! On the last evening here we had a 3-course meal for £2.50; don't ever question the quality of Slovakian food. We also had a campfire with French and Slovaks. On the 4-day and throughout our stay in Slovakia we had the company of Tomas - a 17-year-old Slovakian lad, who helped us on our 4-day and tagged along with us on our activities after. He is very keen to learn English and picked up some of our less English expressions. We then moved on to Prague and stayed about 15 miles outside in 2 berth wooden huts. The train fare into Prague was just over £2 for 9 of us. We spent three days here enjoying McDonalds, the Czech food and the sights - in that order! We had a very lavish final meal there concluding a very successful trip and we extend our thanks to our Slovak friends who looked after us well. PARENTS & FRIENDSRichard Marston (Chairman)Coming EventsJumble Sales, Saturdays 2nd and 9th October - Our first events after the
summer break and your first opportunity to help us reach our £8,500 target for
2004. Please remember to bring your jumble and unwanted gifts down to
headquarters. How are we doing?The Summer Fete is the largest fundraiser of the year and managed to raise £3,158. This brings our total for the year to over £6,500, leaving us just ahead of our budget. Internet www.4wp.org.uk.During the summer break the site has still been hard at work doing its job of promoting the Group and has been a valuable source of new members. We are still receiving an income from the Shopping page so don't forget to pay it a visit. ContactAs usual, I am pleased to receive any comments, suggestions and offers of help by e-mail to "p-and-f" at "4wp.org.uk" or by telephone on 020 8337 2641. FELLOWSHIPGraham SmithRealising the unpredictability of our weather this summer we were extremely fortunate to have had fine summer evenings for our two events in July and August. The evening of Thursday, 29th July, was the occasion of what has become the traditional summer B.B.Q. in the garden of John and Bridget Green. Some forty Fellowship members attended amongst whom we were very pleased to welcome GSL Keith and Val. Our grateful thanks go to John and Bridget for their hospitality and for organising the event and also to those of our ladies who supplied salads and desserts. As always it proved again to be a most enjoyable social event. Something new (to most of us) for our August event - a visit to the RHS gardens at Wisley for their 'Music in the Gardens' evening. This took place on Tuesday 17th August. We met near the entrance to the gardens and then made our way around in small groups, or individually, watching the musical events - two Russians playing xylophone and vibraphone (they were excellent), a jazz band, a harpist and two Scottish pipers - whilst also admiring the lovely floral displays, in particular the grand herbaceous borders. There was also the Flower Show in the marquee to visit and to wonder at some of the magnificent displays exhibitors has created. Our September meeting takes place on Thursday, 30th September and at the conclusion of the business part of the evening Alan and Jean Hedger will be telling us about their visit to Canada. The following month our meeting is on 28th when Peter Phillips will be presenting "Have I Got News For The Fellowship". Fascinating! But before that event we must not forget the Group's two Jumble Sales on the 2nd and 9th October when any help anyone can give is always much appreciated.
Information for November 2004 Newsletter to be with Keith Daly by Monday 4th October
This page was last updated on 24 October 2004 |
