5th Dunstable Scout Group

Newsletter July 2003

Dear Beavers, Cubs, Scouts, Parents, and Friends,

Introduction

The third Group Newsletter has arrived! Did I hear you say "at last"? Well, you're right, I had intended to produce four of these per year. However, when I came to do one in the Autumn, I found that not much had happened to write home about, what with summer holidays and so on, so there didn't seem much point. And since then, life has been a bit hectic, and I just haven't been able to find the time to finish it off.

So I've got a bit of catching up to do, to cover a whole year's activities. Of course, if you've been thirsting for information, you'll have been able to find it at our website (www.fifthdunstable.f9.co.uk), which I have managed to keep fairly well up to date.

Recent Events - Water Weekend

You may recall that I reported in the last newsletter on the May Day Family Camp. Well, a similar event takes place in September, known as the Water Weekend. This is primarily intended to be an opportunity to make use of the Group's water craft, and as such, we don't get quite so organised with entertainment activities as we do for the Family Camp. Not being a Bank Holiday weekend, we're also not actually there for so long.

However, we had a good weekend. We did not have as many families with us as we had in May, but those who were there had a good time.

Recent Events - Jumble Sale

The Great Annual Jumble Sale has now been and gone. The heartfelt thanks of the Group are extended to all those who have helped in this year's event. For anyone who missed it, here's what you missed...

		Ladies Clothes, Friday evening, after some of the sorting has been done
Saturday, during the sale. This was after the initial rush had died down a bit

More pictures on the website at www.fifthdunstable.f9.co.uk

Recent Events - St George's Day Parade

This year's St George's Day Parade marched through the centre of Dunstable on Sunday 27 April. Despite predictions, the rain held off, but the wind gave the flag-bearers some interesting problems to deal with.

Recent Events - Family Camp

As well as the Water Weekend above, we have also had another Family Camp. This was well attended by about 20 units. This year, we were graced with the presence of some of our ex-Venture group, now transformed into members of the Scout Network. I'm delighted to say that they organised for us one of the most enjoyable events ever - a 'duck-a-pult' competition, whose aim was to project a plastic duck as far as possible into the lake using only natural resources and 40 rubber bands. We had about 8 entries, not all abiding very strictly by the rules, and the competition was fierce. I'm told they're already dreaming something up for next year.

Recent Events - May Fayre

Our second fundraising event of the year is the May Fayre. This is primarily a sale of bedding plants, and this year we raised over £600. This may seem a lot, but it is significantly lower than past years, which we think is due to more competition, as other organisations are following our lead.

5th Dunstable Scout Group

Newsletter July 2003

Upcoming Events - Water Weekend

Put September 12-14 in your diary, as this will be the Water Weekend at Emberton Country Park. See above for last year's report, and also on the web.

Highlights of recent Beaver activities include:

• Foreign food tasting
• Making space rockets from junk
• Sponsored sunflower growing, raising £75 for Action for Blind People, and £75 for the Beavers
• Trip to the fire station
• Camp fire building at Longrove
• Experimenter badges awarded
• Faith badges awarded
• Some ICT badges awarded

Since September the new programme for Cubs has been in full swing. With a theme for the year of Things That Fly, our activities have included: The Scientist Badge - with volcanoes, the My Faith Badge - with angels, the Animal Carer Badge - with living Reptiles (that's not in the theme!). The Sixers ran one of the Animal Carer evenings in March, they contacted the RSPB and were sent and presented a variety of information and activities.

The boys also enjoyed a day outing to the RAF Museum at Hendon (picture on right, and more on the web), a recent pack evening at the London Gliding Club and most recently Cub Camp at Bromham.

What better news can we bring you than our 13 cubs on camp came joint first place in the District Cub Camp Competition this year. WE WON WE WON WE WON!!!

In addition, many congratulations to Philip Porter and Shaun Bendefy, who are the first of our Cubs to gain the recently-introduced Chief Scout's Silver Award. Let's have some more!

Well, it's a long time ago now, but since the last newsletter, the Scouts have been to camp. Last year's Scout Camp was affected by school term dates. The tradition of the 5th Dunstable Scouts is to go to camp as soon as the schools break up. However, last year, the dates were confused, and at the time of the camp, some schools were still in session. As a result, only 7 Scouts were able to attend the camp.

Here's one picture. We don't have room for many, so you'll have to find the rest on the website

Other things the Scouts have done during recent months include:

• Building and racing go-karts. No engines - purely scout-powered!

• Canoeing and kayaking at Emberton
• Climbing at Kempston

One last thing ...

You should recently have had, or soon be getting, a questionnaire asking about the future funding of the Fifth Dunstable Scout Group. This is an important piece of research, as we need to know the opinions of all of our contributors, so we can make sensible decisions in the future. If you've received this already, please go and dig it out, fill it in and send it back. If you've not yet received it, then please look out for it, and deal with it promptly.

Thank you.

Comments?

If you’ve got any comments about the Scout Group, or about this Newsletter, or you want to offer your help in some way, then I’d be pleased to hear from you. You can contact me at:

Or via the feedback form on the website, or you can often find me around the hall around 7:30 on a Wednesday evening, picking up cubs and dropping off scouts. Or of course, you can always speak to any of the leaders.

And finally, have yourselves a great summer holiday, and we'll see you again in September.

Where's that website again?

It's at www.fifthdunstable.f9.co.uk