Beaver Colony

With the Memorial Hall closed during January the Beaver Colony moved 2 of their colony meetings to the St Nicholas Church room. Due to the lack of space to play our traditional beaver games we revisited some of those we used during the pandemic, which were new to our current beaver scouts. They enjoyed them as much as the beaver scouts on Zoom did. Another evening the beavers wrote letters and drew pictures to send to the members of the Pack 110 in USA. (See below).

A cold and frosty night, -4 by the time we got home, enabled the colony to escape the confines of the Church Hall and get out and about in true scouting form. A night hike from Porton to Gomeldon complete with torches and fluorescent jackets may have surprised local motorists, however it was enjoyed by beavers and leaders alike.

Since being back in the Memorial Hall, we were proud to be the first organisation to use the hall after the renovation, so it was back to normal beaver games, ie. lots of excited running around making lots of happy noise. Just before half term the colony celebrated Chinese New Year. After finding out a bit about the lunar new year, which lasts for 15 days and ends with the Festival of the Lanterns, each beaver, and some leaders, made Chinese lanterns. A snack of prawn crackers from the local Chinese was enjoyed by most and each beaver went home with lucky red envelopes filled with chocolate coins.

The colony still has vacancies for boys and girls between the ages of 6 and 8 yrs to join the colony. If you think your son or daughter would enjoy the sort of activities we organise, please get in touch. Contact details at the bottom of this report.

Redwood aka Pete Anscomb

Cub Pack

As is customary in the pack the first meeting of a term is devoted to games and ‘youth led scouting’. Youth led Scouting is where the Cubs have input into what they would like to be included in the programme. The cubs sit in small groups with a leader and talk about what they would like to do during the year, the Sixer then presents their ideas to the Leaders who try to incorporate as many as possible into the programme. The Cubs then spent an evening drafting letters and drawing pictures to Pack 110, in Cleveland, Ohio, USA. (See below).

Learning new skills was a theme of a couple of pack meetings. As part of their Team Leaders badge the older cubs are required to teach a skill to the younger members. So one evening those cubs who were in the process of moving up to scouts taught us some rugby skills and Tristan told us all about a lego battle display that he had made.  Very impressive it was too. The following week it was skills again, this time taught by the leaders: sewing on a button, ironing, toasting a marshmallow over a candle to make a s’more and making a hot drink then washing up afterwards. We will be repeating this evening, the time flew by and the cubs only managed 2 activities each. The pack finished the half term celebrating Shrove Tuesday a week early, making pancakes is always a favourite activity. We certainly sent home lots of ‘high as kites’ cubs, sugar, lemon juice, golden syrup and maple syrup featured heavily!

Akela aka Shirley Moores

Pack 110, Cleveland, Ohio

Scouting in the USA is run differently to in this country. Cub Scouts are aged from 5yrs – 11yrs and parents have much more input to the meetings. In fact in the younger age groups parents have to stay with their son/daughter during all activities. The cubs meet in Dens which are small groups of same age and same sex children run by their parents. They meet about once a month and then once a month all the Dens in a Pack meet together for an evening of games and activities.

We have forged a link with Pack 110, which we are hoping will last and that some of our Beavers and Cubs will make pen friends out of it.

During the Christmas break we received letters and pictures from the young people in Pack 110 with some popping corn and maple syrup. The maple syrup comes from produced from a large sugar bush in the grounds or their Scout Camp on Beaumont Scout Reservation. As reported earlier our Beavers and Cubs have replied in general to the Cubs in America by writing letters and drawing pictures. There are a lot more of us than of them, so we shall see what happens and keep our fingers crossed that we are successful forging a long-lasting link

Scouts – Idmiston Troop

It is some time since the Troop sent a report into this fine publication, so lots to catch up on.

It was a very new look troop that formed up in the Autumn term. The senior scouts having moved on to Explorers, we found ourselves at the mercy of demographics, with the youngest Troop we’ve ever had. Overall numbers were also down slightly but that didn’t hold us back and the scouts got stuck into the training programme with gusto.

The District shooting competition was hard fought, as usual, with a very high standard across all the teams. We entered two teams and despite the relative inexperience of our shooters managed to claim 2^nd and 6^th places from a field of 13.

The Grose Trophy is competed for annually by scout troops from across the District. The competition involves the scouts working in their patrols to complete a hike, undertaking scored tasks at various checkpoints on the way. The tasks are usually based on scouting skills and are marked on teamwork as well as achievement. We were defending champions going into the competition but the scouts surpassed all expectations and from a field of 15 teams the Troop came in 1^st, 2^nd and 3^rd, our best ever result.

We finished 2023 with a trip to the pantomime in Salisbury and a Christmas Party.

The new year started out with a spot of reorganisation. Thanks to some new members swelling our ranks we were able to increase to four patrols, welcoming the Kingfisher Patrol to the Troop. This term we have been looking at global issues and other cultures as the Scouts take on the World Challenge badge; the Lunar New Year was duly celebrated. We also took the opportunity to carry out some preparation for later in the year when we will undertake the Survival Skills badge. Not everyone was excited when the leader team produced 3 brace of pheasants that required preparing for the pot, but everyone at least tried a bit of plucking and all the birds were eventually gutted and ready for cooking. Time being against us, the tasting was carried out the following week with generally favourable results.

As I type this, we are preparing for more culinary adventures with our annual pancake evening when the scouts cook their own pancakes and add whatever topping they choose.

Although our numbers are steady, we do still have spaces and we are very keen to invite more girls to our ranks. At one time the troop was 50% female and the girls have done very well; 4 have attended World Scout Jamborees: in Japan, USA and South Korea; one completed her Young Leader award and then came back to the Troop as an adult leader and another completed her Queen’s Scout Award and now runs an Explorer Scout Unit in Essex. 

If you know of anyone who enjoys the outdoor life and a bit of adventure, we meet on Fridays 7.15 – 9pm at the Memorial Hall in Porton.

Ian Jack

Group Contact

Shirley Moores - Group Team Leader

01980 61614/07518053095

shirleyamoores1953@gmail.com