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15th Romsey (North Baddesley) Scout Group

January 2007

100 years of Scouting

To mark the milestone this year's World Jamboree will take place in England during the summer. In Hampshire we are holding our own Centenary Camp on the New Forest Showground and we are hoping that all the youngsters from North Baddesley will be able to take part in it- even the Beavers, who are too young to camp, but are invited out for a special ‘Sunrise Day’ on the big day—1^st August. The camp for Cubs, Scouts and Explorers starts on Sunday 29 July and boasts an exciting programme for all age groups including circus skills, archery, abseiling etc for Beavers and Cubs, Laser, Quad bikes, Spider Mountain for the Scouts and Hovercrafts, tethered ballooning, and zorbing for the Explorers. Keep a look out for further information but get the date in your diaries—you don’t want to miss it!.

Top Award for Andy!

Our Explorer unit is celebrating its first member to gain the Queen's Scout Award - the top award for young members in Scouting. This is an award that is normally attained by young adults between 18-25 years of age, but Explorer Scout Andrew Tyrrell had completed it shortly before his 18^th birthday in December. The award is to be presented to Andrew by the County Commissioner at a special evening early in February.

To gain the award, Andrew spent 10 days at the Kandersteg International Scout Centre in Switzerland taking part in alpine activities and ran a series of evenings for Cub Scouts to allow them to gain their global Conservation badge. He has spent well over the required q18 nights away on various camps and
has also competed the Duke of Edinburgh's Gold Award, having previously gained both the Bronze and Silver Awards

For the DE Gold Award Andrew took part in the sport of fin swimming, progressed to a higher standard in flute playing and became a radio producer at Winchester Hospital Radio. He also participated in a National Trust Working holiday in the Brecon Beacons and two 4-day expeditions on Dartmoor.

Scouts News

Review of 2006

2006 saw the troop grow from 18 to 28 scouts with 2 girls. We also gained back an old warranted leader and a new pack helper. The troop participated in numerous events:

Winter Camp—March saw the scouts get to grips with an essential part of scouting.. Camping. A short weekend camp in the New Forest with temperatures as low as –6 degrees tested us all.

Caving and Climbing—Scouts travelled up to the Mendip Hills in Somerset for a half a day climbing on disused quarry pits and half a day caving in Burrecombe.

Village Day—We set up a stall at the annual village day, with games to play and info for anyone interested in finding out more about the scout troop in their community.

Summer Camp—The highlight of the year was a week long camp in East Sussex. Scouts got to grips with the wears and tears of surviving in tents, cooking on open fires and washing up (and of course a few games along the way).

Canoe and raft building—A District organised event saw two teams from 15th Romsey battle out with other scouts from the district in a race across the water.

5-a-side tournament—8 teams from the Romsey district came together for the annual 5-a-side football tournament at Knightwood leisure Centre. We entered two teams who did us proud coming 1st and 3rd. Well done lads.

Grimsdyke Hike—A minibus trip to the Chiltern Hills gave the scouts their first real hiking and map reading test. A grueling 13 mile course, encompassing 20 checkpoints, with thunder and lightening tested the nerve of even the bravest of scouts.

In between all this, scouts worked towards various badges. All in all a successful year.

Coming Up….

• 18^th March—Caving Trip in Somerset
• 19^th March— Patrol Leaders Evening
• 26^th March— Rifle shooting and Pea shooting

Gift Aid—A Reminder

For every £1.00 paid in subs, the Scout Group can claim back 22p from the Inland Revenue. Over the year this can equate to nearly £600.00 making this a vital part of fund raising for the group.

A Gift Aid form is supplied when your child joins Scouting. The Income Tax paying parent/guardian can complete one of these forms for each child who joins. If you haven’t sent in your form yet, please do - it’s never too late as we can claim retrospectively.

Explorers News

The Explorers have decided to change the meeting night from Friday to Thursday from January 07.

Just like the scouts, there is a lot planned for the term including Winter Camp, a New Forest Cycle ride and a trip to the Brecon Beacons. Check out the diary too for dates for all the centenary activities.

Vandalism at the HQ

Sadly there has been further vandalism in the form of graffiti across the window shutters and walls of HQ. We will endeavour to clean this off before the important events coming up but this will depend on people being able to take time out for this.

Baddesley Beadles

The February Beadles will be handed out to youngsters for delivery around the middle of February. We try to give the youngest members rounds that are close to their home - so this means the older members tend to get the areas that are more remote. Our thanks to everyone who helps with this. Please let us know of any problems.

Sponsorship Opportunity

Elaine Armstrong, member of the Exec committee and mum of scout Murray, will be taking part in the London Marathon this year and is hoping to raise lots of money for local hospices. If you would like to find out more about the charity she will be running for, or to support Elaine by sponsoring her, please contact us at chair@northbaddesleyscouts.org.uk and we will pass on your details.

St George’s Day Parade

Please note St George's Day Parade will be held on Sunday 22nd April 2007 and we would really like all members of the group to make an effort to turn out for this in this special year for us.

Subs

Don’t forget, to obtain your discount on the subs, you need to pay by Saturday 27th January.