Group News

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.

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4th News, Summer 2006

Sections

GROUP SCOUT LEADER

Fred Fletcher

Many congratulations to Dave Sweetland and to Richard Pennington.
Dave has been awarded the Bar to the Silver Acorn and Richard has worked very hard to gain his Queen's Scout Award.
Well done and many thanks for what you have both achieved for the 4th Worcester Park Scout Group.

Congratulations also to all our Scouters who recently received Long Service awards; David Sweetland - Brian Yearley - Tom Pennington - Leslie Prescott - Carol Salter - Ann Mays - Margaret Pennington - Pat Jacobs - Kay Atwell - Paul Green - Steph Jones - Paul Stansbridge - Joanne Blackwell

Thank you all for the service that you have given to the 4th Worcester Park, may I also congratulate Sally Washington and John Humber on receiving the Chief Scout's Commendation for Good Service. Many thanks to you all.

I hope that by the time you read this you would have seen the improvement to our entrance gates; thanks to Andy Marshall, Brian Yearley, Dave Sweetland and Graham Atwell for performing this work for us. I'm sure the local people will now see that the 4th Worcester Park is thriving.
May I remind everyone that the Summer Fete will be on the 8th July. As this is one of the biggest Scout Fete's in Sutton we are going to need lots and lots of help from everyone, so parents please be prepared to help us. Either contact the P & F Chairman Kevin Mohr or myself (Fred Fletcher) and we will find you some interesting job to do. Let's make this the best Summer fete ever!

Many thanks to Joanne and Paul, and Christine and Neil for organising the St. George's Day Supper for leaders and guests. It was a nice evening and the food was very good. Also a big thank you to the Scouts of Silver Troop who were a great help during the evening.
The following day was St. George's Day and 97 members of the 4th Worcester Park attended the Parade and Promise Renewal Service. Unfortunately it rained during the afternoon but it did just about hold off during the short service. Well done to all our members who braved the elements and turned up. Considering the weather it was an excellent turn-out for our annual parade - I'll see you all at our Summer Fete, don't forget now!

ASPEN COLONY

Anne Mays (MAYO), Carol Salter (HOLLY)

Well this is our second newsletter this year it seems quite strange not writing one each month and trying to remember all that we have done.
We have two very new little boys Harry Tomlinson and Daniel Nosworthy who have only recently joined us and we are very happy to have them.
We have a lot of boys going up to cubs this year so if anyone of the boys has a friend they would like to bring along to Beavers we would like to meet them. The Beavers will also get a buddy badge if their friend stays.

Several of the boys have now received their friendship badge and are well on their way to receiving their Chief Scout's Bronze Award for the highest level in Beaver Scouts. We have also been working on our Creative badge and our Explore badge there are quite a few tasks the boys have to achieve before these badges are given out so very well done to all of the them.. For the new boys all the things they do with us will be counted towards badges they can earn.

We are very happy with our two Guides and very glad to have them, chaos reigns some weeks but that sometimes just adds to the fun. The girls (Louise and Paula) have done some learning projects with the boys towards their badges and I think both the girls have learned things along the way themselves.

Our parent rota still stands so please if you don't have a list of dates to help then please ask. If you can't make a particular night I am sure you can swap it with someone else but please make sure your night is covered.
As I write this newsletter Holly and I will meet to arrange some of out future meetings and as the nights will be getting longer I am sure we will include some meetings away from the headquarters.
If any parents can help with some basic first aid training that would be great or if anyone works in a dentist practice - or even has any ideas of any basic skill the Beavers could learn we would be very pleased to hear from you. Maybe some of you dads could tell them a little about what work you do if it is helping with the community in any way or building houses or an electrician it really won't be rocket science and trust us it can be great fun. It seems with boys this age what you see is what you get and they can be very entertaining.
I must say I do get a little concerned because every time we ask for any ideas or help hardly anyone ever comes forward it really is incredible that none of the Dads even know how to play football or to ref a game for 6 year olds some of you parents must be able to do something please think about it and even better tell us about it that would be great.

On the 8th July is our Summer Fete and this really must be all hands on deck we are a charity and therefore stand alone. We need all the help we can get so we would like every parent to do just one thing towards it. Maybe you could make some cakes bring down unwanted gifts for the raffle or bottles for the bottle stall or maybe even help at some time during the week to get things ready there is somebody here most nights during the week.

Failing that could you please, please help on the day because that is when we need the most help putting up the equipment and taking it down and help during the fete itself. If you want to all rush forward be our guest but if not please help where and when you can. This will be the last newsletter until next term so please take on board what we are saying and give a little of your time and skills whatever they may be. Thank you.

BIRCH COLONY

Sheila Kinton (BAGHEERA)

The Beavers were busy practicing for the Scouts' Own. We were very proud of how well the Beavers performed their parts.
We have had meetings with different weather themes, two new collages have adorned our notice board and cooking has included pizzas, pancakes and chocolate nests.
Brandon Gibson went up to Cubs and we were pleased to welcome Joshua Naidu into the Colony.
Congratulations to the following boys on gaining awards:-
Outdoor Challenge - Harry Johnstone, Russell Watson and Theo Hunt.
Friendship Challenge - Joseph Start, Alex Pickersgill and Reece Chubb.
Creative Badge - Theo Hunt.
Explore Badge - Theo Hunt.
By the time you read this newsletter we shall have taken part in the St. George's Day Promise Renewal and will be looking forward to the County Fun Day at Walton Firs campsite.
We hope that by the Summer holidays we shall have had lots of exciting meetings, many of them outdoors.

CEDAR COLONY

Valerie Street (BADGER)

Is it possible to have a good day trip all for one pound? Yes is the answer. Many of Cedar Colony plus two Cubs, two Scouts and a sprinkling of parent volunteers went to London on Saturday the 8th April.
We met at Worcester Park station and caught the 8.58 to London Waterloo.

We enjoyed a slow scenic walk via the London Eye, the Houses of Parliament, just in time for Big Ben to strike 10.00 and on to St James Park. By then the boys were slowing down and needed a rest, so we had our morning drink and biscuit. We admired the ducks and slowly weaved our way through the tourists to arrive exactly on time at the gates to Buckingham Palace. We presented our letter to the police officer on duty and we felt very important when he asked the tourists to step aside as we entered the grounds.

We were told where to stand for the Changing of the Guard and despite being joined by some very noisy Brownies; we had a splendid view of all that was going on. The soldiers looked splendid with their bright red tunics and their very tall black busbies. They were the outgoing Guard. There was lots of shouting and inspections and marching around and live music by the band.

The next band arrived in completely different uniforms which we soon recognised as the RAF. More commands were shouted, there was more music and the Officer in charge of both the Guards and the RAF came over to speak with us. We admired the Flight Lieutenants very shiny shoes and asked how long it took him to polish them. We laughed when he told us that it would take him days, so he paid someone else to do it!

After the parade two very nice and informative police officers joined us and gave permission for us to take a group photograph.
We played in the lovely wood built playground in St James' Park and enjoyed our picnic lunches and sang Happy Birthday to James Francis who was six that very day. We walked through the park, up the Mall to Horse Guards Parade and took a peep at the entrance to Downing Street.
Nelson's Column was covered for restoration work and there were a few weary Beavers, so we walked over the new Hungerford Bridge to Waterloo where we missed the train by one minute!
We arrived safely back in Worcester Park at 3.30 and all the boys said they would like to do it again.

Other news from Cedar is that for the first time with me as leader we had a full colony of 24 Beavers. It was only for a few weeks as we said goodbye to Liam Richards and Callum Jones who went up to Cubs having gained their Chief Scout's Bronze awards. We enrolled Kym Azzopardi, Ben Porter, Christopher Cragg, and Scott Prince on 27th January. We welcomed Alexander Leadon, George Culver, Joshua Ingals and William Lyse who were then enrolled on the 3rd March. We welcomed Ben Smith, Ryan Taylor and James Francis and we enrolled them on the last night of term which was the 31st March.
All the boys except for the last three to be enrolled have now been awarded their Creative and Animal friend badge and good weather permitting we shall work towards our Outdoor challenge this summer.
We intend to run another Really Revolting Stall at the Summer Fete. We do love our jelly and baked bean footbaths!

ANGLIA PACK

Samantha O'Reilly (AKELA)

Anglia Pack have been busy wowing everyone with their culinary delights as they work this term on their Chef's badges. From starters of melon and grapefruit to desert of banana splits the boys have worked hard in the kitchen. The best bit had to be eating the attempts though! Congratulations to the fourteen boys who achieved the badge. The term was ended by a visit to the Sutton fire station. The officer of the watch took great delight in ensuring both Cubs and leaders were drenched in the hosepipe display; all boys left much wiser about fire safety than before their visit.
And so we look forward to the summer term with Camp, Bowling, Hikes, Fire Building and First Aid badges all on the agenda.

BROWNSEA PACK

Les Prescott (KERICK)

In January we visited the Secombe Theatre in Sutton to See "Beauty and the Beast" in which one of our leaders, Harry Dunne, was participating. We spent some evenings on the Home Help badge and thanks to parents for encouraging the Cubs to complete the requirements for this badge at home.
Other activities since January have included making pancakes, a potato evening including a survey of the best chips in Worcester Park, a wide game and our Easter Egg hunt including making marzipan fruits.
My thanks to the Cubs who led the Scouts' Own in March - they did a first class job.
Badges gained since January have included:
Creative Challenge: George Foster, Michael Cooney, Aaron Prince, Matthew Coates, Lewis Webb, Jack Rosenthal.
Caring Challenge: Brynmor Chittock, Stuart Grigg, David Nosworthy, Michael Cooney, William Singer, Thomas Sharp, Cameron Geard.
We said "goodbye" to Sam Mullins in February. Sam gained his Chief Scouts' Silver Award and went up to Purple Troop. We wish him well in his Scouting. We welcomed Adam Watts as a new recruit. Our sixers are now Luke Cornish, Jamie Smart, Brynmor Chittock and Joseph Finn, and the seconds are Ben O'Byrne, William Eyre, Edward Yelf and Stuart Grigg.

In the next few months we plan to undertake many outdoor activities including wide games, fire lighting and cooking, tent pitching and an aerial runway among other exciting programme ideas. We have our weekend training camp in May and our main summer camp during the first week of the summer holidays - see below for dates.

Dates for your diary:
Scouts'Own - Sunday 9th July
Summer Fair - 8th July
Summer Camp - Sunday 30th July to Friday 4th August

CHARTERHOUSE PACK

Margaret Pennington (AKELA)

We were very busy last term; we fitted in all sorts of things including delivering jumble leaflets, a joint fun evening with Brownsea and Anglia at Beverley School, we had the parachute, bouncy castle, tag rugby, blindfold trail, made our own place mats, basketball, hot dogs, and finished with a camp fire - our thanks go to Les and Sam, we all had an excellent evening.

Our good deed for the term was a 'bring and buy' sale for the Neo Natal Unit.
£140 was raised. Well done and thanks to all.

The boys will tell you all about it...

At the bring and buy I held a stall where you had to say higher or lower, flip over a card and if the number was higher or lower than the previous one and you guessed right you moved onto the next one. If you got them all right you won a sweet. Gregory

I bought a big fluffy dog and I ran the golf stall. There was nail stall, a Malteser Stall, a cake stall, a card stall and a toy stall and if you won on a stall you got a sweet. Ben

We had our own stall to make money for St Helier. We had prizes. We had a bring and buy sale. There were seven stalls. We all got money. We were making money. The stalls were a card stall, a cake and sweet stall and a nail game and a golf game and a Malteser stall. They had prizes. We were making money for a charity for St Helier neo natal Unit. There was a 20p toy stall. It was on 21st February. We earned lots of money. There was a drink and crisp stall.
Lakshman.

You can buy stuff. Our white six ran higher or lower stall. We raised a lot of 20p's. We even got a lot of pounds from the 20p's. If they won they got packets of sweets. Henry

Boys entered the District Chess Competition - they played well and we are proud of them.
We stood in the cold trying to persuade people they wanted to come and help run one of the sections - please look carefully at your skills, one of you must be willing to do a little extra!

Race Night was as usual a very entertaining evening - well done Fred, we had fun.
Not many of us managed to attend Scouts' Own, there was a bug going round.
The District organised a Swimming Badge Evening at Cheam Baths, the boys who attended really did enjoy it.
As we had a problem with letters getting home with important information we did a Communications Badge.

By the time you read this we will have paraded for the Promise Renewal in Sutton and joined the District at Camp for the day - all the fun without the effort of putting up tents!
We are looking forward to more chances to earn badges, fun days out and the Group Summer Fete. Our own camp which will be at Youlbury this year from 30th July to 5th August, should be exciting.

PURPLE TROOP

Alan Avery (Scout Leader)

Alan Avery has not been available to run the Troop recently so Albert Short and Nick Atwell have taken on the running of meetings for the time being and a very good job they've been making of it. Alan will be back with us shortly so that's something for us all to look forward to.
Fred Fletcher - GSL

SILVER TROOP

Paul Green (Scout Leader)

Well, what a busy start to the year! It doesn't seem that we are already in the summer term!

Steph and I are now happily married and all went well on the day. We had a fantastic time and the honeymoon in Thailand was excellent. We would like to thank the Group for their gift, support and good wishes it was much appreciated.
We entered a team into the District 5 a side football tournament but were unfortunately not eligible to play the final. Steph was team manager and parents and I supported on the sidelines, once I made it there!

I have been told Silver troop did very well cooking and organising for the St George's Supper at HQ. Well done to Tom for winning the dragon competition, the judges were very impressed with your impressive use of plasticine! Thanks to all the boys who helped, a special thanks to Jo, Paul, Neal, Emilie and Thomas who were at HQ for most of the day cooking and preparing the meals.
We have the District water weekend coming up and we are taking 16 boys from the 2 troops to Docklands Scout project. We are also organising a trip to High Sports, the indoor climbing centre near Gatwick, we are being assisted by Simon Keen, one of the district instructors.
The Group fete is coming up on the 8th July. We will need all the parents to help down on the field on the various stalls, if you are available please let us know. I am reliably informed that the Beer tent will be making an appearance again! We will be running the Chip and burger stall and will need 3KG - 5KG of frozen oven chips from each boy to sell on the stall, please could these be delivered the night before the fete.
The boat is nearly ready for its first outing in May. With a little more work and patience it should all be sorted and ready to go. Hopefully it won't be long before we can take the boys out.

EXPLORER UNIT

Albert Short (Explorer Scout Leader)

First of all, our BIGGEST thanks go to Alan Avery for all his hard work, commitment and dedication to the Explorer Unit for the last several years. He has run the unit superbly and has run many trips on the continent, as well as evenings out, exec meetings, and ferrying us all around in the minibus. As Alan's role is now passed over to me, we all join to wish him well in the future.

The Explorer Unit managed to get some paint free-of-charge from B&Q, and have now revamped their den with brighter bolder colours. They spent an evening with the Sutton Division Rangers testing their senses by tasting various "unknown" foods, and by completing tasks without hearing or seeing anything.

The Explorer Executive committee met to decide activities for the current term. First on the agenda was backwoods cooking, including bread-twists and marshmallows! The Explorers were also set challenges such as boiling an egg with only one match, an orange and a potato. They also took an evening stroll up to Nonsuch Park where they ran a few highly energetic wide games.
We are also pleased to report numbers are increasing with an average of 15 people turning up on a regular basis, including 4 female members. Please remember we do need subs to be paid ASAP though!

PARENTS & FRIENDS

Kevin Mohr (CHAIRMAN)

Firstly thank you for your support over the first three months of the year. There are two events that have recently taken place that have proved successful. The Spring Auction raised £480 and the Race Nite raised £388, with a good time had by all. Thanks to all of you who supported these events.
Please let me know if you are able to give some time. I can be contacted at
p-and-f(at)4wp.org.uk
The Summer Fete this year will be taking place on Saturday 8th July. This is one of our largest fundraisers and is held in the field behind HQ. We are always on the lookout for new ideas on how to make money by having some fun, so if you have that "Eureka" moment, contact Sarah Chittock, who organises the fete. Her Email address is fete(at)4wp.org.uk

I would also plead again for more volunteers please. After all the more money we raise the better the Group can provide facilities and activities for the kids whilst keeping the subscriptions to a reasonable level.

FELLOWSHIP

Graham Smith

The new venue chosen for the Fellowship's annual dinner on the 28th January, The Rubbing House, proved popular and an enjoyable evening was had by all forty or so members who attended. The event this year was free from snow or frost which we had experienced on the last two occasions which had then made driving rather hazardous. This year all we had to contend with was an icy wind.
The usual help was given at the two jumble sales in February where the combined financial result was excellent and one or two of us had attended the Work Morning on the 5th of the month. Following the business part of the meeting on the 23rd February, Ron Kinton gave a talk to us entitled "Cooks to Books via Claridges" which was all about his fascinating career in catering.
The Group's B-P. Supper followed a couple of days later on the 25th which, as always, was very well attended by the Fellowship.
Race Nite on the 25th March was as usual a most enjoyable evening and the levels of excitement knew no bounds!
Our AGM, held on Thursday, 30th March, was very well attended. At the opening of the meeting we were all very pleased to be able to congratulate Dave Sweetman on the award of the bar to his Silver, Acorn - very well deserved.
It is also most worthy of note that both David and Brian Yearley have been given Long Service Awards to mark 40 years of service to the Group in various capacities over the years. The business of the evening followed its usual pattern - our "stop gap" secretary, Mary Root, gave the Secretary's Report and once again made us all realise what a very full year we have had. Our Treasurer, Derek Scrine, gave the Treasurer's Report and the matter of our subscriptions was discussed at some length

Then followed the Election of Officers. Joan Hammett had offered her services as Secretary for the coming year and was duly elected. Derek Scrine was prepared to continue as our Treasurer and so was duly elected. There were no nominations for a change in either Chairman or Vice Chairman and I therefore, with the meeting's vote of approval, will serve for one further year as Chairman with Peter Phillips continuing as Vice Chairman.
With the meeting ended we all then enjoyed the Cheese and Wine party provided by Geoff and Pauline Morris. They were thanked for a wonderful spread.
Our next meeting was on Thursday, 27th April when with the business part of the evening complete an illustrated talk on "Offbeat London" was given by Arthur Hobbs.
The following month, on the 25th we have a daytime activity organised by Alan Hedger - "A Walk on Headley Heath". We meet in the main car park opposite the cricket ground on Headley Common Road at 10.00am. The distance will be about four to five miles and it is suggested you may like to bring a packed lunch or alternatively have lunch in "The Cock Inn" at the completion of the walk.
Our June meeting on the 22nd June takes the form of the BBQ at John and Bridget Green's home - 7.30pm. Please remember to bring a chair, cutlery, glasses and any liquid refreshment you may require.
In July an evening on the river is planned - on the 27th we meet at 7.00pm at "The Albany" {ex "Fox On The River"} Thames Ditton.
Our visit to Wimbledon Tennis Museum and the courts takes place on the 31st August arrangements to be decided nearer the date. During this period, of course, there will be the two Jumble Sales, the Group AGM and the Summer Fete, so we look forward to an interesting early summer

Information for Autumn 2006 Newsletter to be with Fred Fletcher by Monday September 11th