KidsOutdoors

Nailsworth scouts spent a week on the Gower Peninsular in south wales for a summer camp. It was based on traditional partol camping which acording to thw site warden 'hasnt been seen in years' we replied saying it is how we always camp.  The troops 19 year old scout leader said 'this type of camping encourages independance from the scouts and also teaches them to cook and to take responsability for all of the day to day chores whilst still having a week packed full of activites' 

Some of the activites they enjoyed were - Sailing, Archery, Rock clibing and Absailing, Pionerring, hiking, swiming,and whils at the sea they spent a day on the beach takign part in rounders, sand castle competions, kite flying swimming and mini raft making - usiing inflatable rings and a pionered frame. they also enjoyey running up and down the huge sand dune! 

If you would like to find out more about Nailsworth Scout Group visit www.nailsworthscouts.org.uk    

A TEAM of volunteers helped to raised more than £2,000 for charities after riding a sixteen-seater cycle from Ipswich Hospital to Shotley.

Supporters along the 14-mile route came out to cheer on the cyclists taking part in The Big Bike Ride, which was organised by the 24th Ipswich Scout Group to raise money for their own club, the East Anglian Air Ambulance and the Special Care Baby Unit at Ipswich Hospital.

Stewart Bethell, group leader of the 24th Ipswich Scout Group, who was one of the individual cyclists taking part, said: “We were well supported throughout the town and especially when we got down to Shotley because they knew we were coming.

“There are already rumours this will become an annual event. Everyone enjoyed it and it is certainly something different.

“The police community support officers were fantastic. They stopped the traffic for us so we didn't have to wait at any traffic lights.”

The ride on Saturday took the cyclists through Woodbridge Road East and Spring Road, and onto Freston Hill, Chelmondiston, before ending up in Shotley at about 3.30pm.

They had a number of rest stops throughout the day, including Tower Ramparts, The Oyster Reach pub, and The Boot at Freston, where they collected donations.

Following the ride, The Bristol Arms pub in Shotley hosted a barbecue and held a karaoke evening, which included a prize draw.

Mr Bethell added: “I was very happy with how things went and I want to say a big thank you to everyone involved. The Bristol Arms laid on a great barbeque and we had 32 prizes for the draw in total, including football tickets from Ipswich Town Football Club and mountain bikes from JJB.

“Part of our aim was to recruit more adults into supporting young people in the Ipswich area, either directly with scouting or along with other agencies.”

If you are interested in joining the group, visit www.the24thipswichscouts.org.uk or call Stewart on 07887 534541.

Are you holding an event you want to tell us about? Write to Your Letters, Evening Star, 30 Lower Brook Street, Ipswich, IP4 1AN, or e-mail eveningstarletters@eveningstar.co.uk

Congratulations to every one who took part in the recent Pike View Hike.Hope You enjoyed Competing as much as we all enjoyed running the event.

Did you get encouragement from your leaders?

Well now its your turn to encourage them.

Pike View Hike Adult /Leaders Event 10-12 Oct 2008.

Come on give them a push See the web page for more details and the entry form.

12 Scouts and 5 leaders braved the torrential downpours and thunderstorms and spent two nights and three days camping in the woods at Westfield with only the bare essentials.

No tents, No toilets, No utensils, No comforts  and definitely No mums!

The camp that took place over the bank holiday was a complete survival camp teaching skills such as skinning rabbits, gutting fish, making a compass, setting traps, foraging for food, building and sleeping in your own shelter and cooking all food on an open fire with no pots, pans or utensils.

The Scouts all did fantastically well and worked really hard building their shelters which held up to the thunderstorm apart from a few drips on the head! When they arrived on the Monday they were given instant pasta pot and a yogurt for their first meal and had to keep the containers as their plate and cup for the rest of the camp, and as they'll all tell you its pretty hard to drink hot chocolate from a yogurt pot!

They all learnt how important it was to keep the fire stoked up and the wood pile, and have all become experts in making pegs out of wood to keep their guy lines pulled out, although their fingers took a battering from cuts and slices in the process, i think we went through an entire box of plasters in three days!!! For some of the Scouts it was their first camp having just come up from cubs so they definitely proved they can hack it with the older Scouts, and every single Scout on the camp has now earned their Survival Skills Activity badge.

Well done to all of them and thank you to the awesome leader team for their organisation and help over the camp.

S.O.S. Please help!

As you know, Run for the Children is running a series of 3K runs across the country to raise money for The Children's Trust, a U.K. based charity that helps children with multiple disabilities due to brain damage.  The stories of the children affected are often very touching; kids knocked down by police cars while on their way home from school.  Kids who contract Meningitis and survive, but with brains badly damaged. 

The Children's Trust does fantastic worth from a centre in Tadworth Surrey, helping these children back to (hopefully) a normal life.

Our events are family events, fun-runs with lots of other activities built-in to do afterwards, for instance a bungee wall (Rickmansworth), International BMX-ers and free-runners (Brighton) cycle coaching and street entertainment (Towcester) All the sponsorship money goes to the Trust. 

But we are only a small team (seven people) and we rely heavily on the support of volunteers in each area to make every one of our twenty runs a success. 

And, well, we are stuck.  We need more volunteers from Oxford.  Desperately.

If you think you could help at this event on the 29th June, or at any of our events, please ring us on 01903 883941.  Kate would love to hear from you.

If you want to know more about us or any of our days, log on to www.runforthechildren.co.uk and help us to help these special children.

2008-06-02

The 1^st Turnford Scouts spent the Whitsun bank holiday weekend at the Eaton Vale Scout and Guide Activity centre in Norwich. 

We left sunny Hertfordshire at 6pm Friday evening and a convoy of three cars and two trailers made their way through the weekend traffic, after two and a half hours of boiled sweets and 20 questions we arrived at Eaton Vale and started setting up camp. By 10.30 we were all set up and ready for hot drinks and hot dogs – well the leaders were as the Scouts were apparently so shattered from their exhausting journey that they all trooped off to bed without any supper – you would have thought that they had done all the driving! 

We were up bright, but thankfully not too early on the Saturday for a day at the seaside. The sun was shining so after a full cooked breakfast we packed our cosies in our day sacs, grabbed our picnics and off we set. A picnic on the cliffs above the beach at West Runton was first on the agenda, but unfortunately in the mad rush to get off the campsite we forgot to pack the cutlery – oops, no butter on the French bread! We Scouts are a resourceful bunch so off to Morrison’s petrol station went two leaders who came back armed with plastic knives and forks.  Picnic eaten the Scouts wasted no time and were straight in the sea for a paddle. I tried it, it was freezing but they seemed not to care! We spent a fun few hours building sand castles, rock pooling and even invested a new Scout on the sand by the edge of the sea! The rest of the afternoon was spent looking around the shops and walking along the pier. We ended the day with a fish and chip supper on the promenade then made our way back to the campsite tired and wind swept but full of stories from our fun day out. 

We had to be up early on Sunday but trying to wake the Scouts up was a feat and a half – I nearly had to get my Billie and wooden spoon out! After a quick breakfast of toast and cereal – yes we had toast at camp! The Scouts made their packed lunches and we were on our way to Blakney to pick up our boat for our trip out to Blakney Point to see the seals. Unfortunately the weather wasn’t kind to us it was cold, wet and windy and full waterproofs was a must, at one point we even had hailstones! Weather aside we had a fantastic trip and we saw loads of seals, back on dry land and glad to have a chance to warm up we climbed in the cars and made our way round to Wells next to sea. We went up to the pine forest and over the sand dunes and sat and had our picnic on the beach huddled against a sea breaker to shelter from the wind – you must think we are mad but the tide was out and all you could see for miles was sand. And before the heavens’ opened once more the Scouts spent a fun time rolling down sand dunes – as you do! Next stop was the harbour to do some crabbing and/or more shopping! It was pouring with rain and very windy but the Scouts spent a happy couple of hours in Wells, they even managed to catch some crabs despite the weather! Tired and wet we took the miniature railway back to the pine forest and wet, tired and hungry we made our way back to the campsite for home made curry a well needed shower and bed!  

Bank holiday Monday was our final day at the campsite and we remained on site to take advantage of the excellent facilities offered by the centre. The Scouts took part in an Archery session then enjoyed an hour and a half kayaking on the river Yare which runs right through the campsite. Following a morning of activities we had some lunch and got on with the job of breaking camp. The weather was not the best – high winds are not ideal when trying to pack away tents! But team work prevailed and we were packed up and ready to go by 3.30pm, a quick visit to the camp shop before we left and we were on our way home. Despite the weather we had the most amazing weekend and would recommend a visit to Eaton Vale to anyone.  

Beavers go Posh!!

Freeford Manor

What an evening?

On Tuesday 13th May 2008, the 5th Lichfield Beaver Section met at Freeford Manor, Lichfield. Freeford Manor was built in several stages beginning in the early 1700s and continuing through the 19th century, Freeford Manor at Lichfield is a family home surrounded by the estate that has been owned and occupied continuously by the same family for nearly 450 years. The Manor Overlooks a lake and set in beautiful parkland.

After leaving all the Beaver Parents at the Entrance/Stables we walked the Beavers towards the ‘Bluebell Forest’, but between the Forest and us was an open field. Beavers and Open Field…Brilliant! What better after a long day at school? On instruction from the Leaders, the beavers got to race across this open field to the furthest corner where all beavers waited patiently for the ‘Slow’ Leaders.

The Beavers were really excited entering the ‘Bluebell Forest’ to start our evening activities. All Beavers followed the country code without any prompting from the Leaders.

Evening Planned Activities

Nature Detectives – Can the Beavers find items on our list, Bark Rubbings, A Water Game involving a Mug, String tied to Trees

After the Beavers enjoyed our planned activities in the forest, each Beaver had a Hotdog unless mentioned on consent forms; those Beavers concerned enjoyed a special ‘snack’. Now you are wondering how we managed to feed all Beavers in a forest. All we can say is ‘Be Prepared’.

To conclude with the Beavers had a short Nature Walk through part of the forest discovering animal habitats, giant pinecones and singing ‘Every where we go’.

The Beavers had a wonderful time and all activities planned will meet certain Badge Requirements. If you want to see the pictures then go to the Gallery Page. www.5thlichfield.co.uk. 

Well thats it we are now in the final week before the annual Pike View Hike.

Every thing is in place

Good luck to all taking part hope you have a great weekend.

Thanks to a £5,000 grant from the Youth Opportunity Fund, Ayers Explorer Scouts were able to organise a trip to Betws-Y-Coed, in Wales, where the we stayed in the Swallow Falls Youth Hostel. On the Saturday morning we collected 28 Mountain Bikes before heading off on a ride past Llyn Elsi. Thankfully from the fleet of bikes we only suffered 3 punctures whilst enjoying some beautiful views of Snowdonia.

The main activity of our trip followed with a visit to Canolfan Tryweryn - The National Whitewater Rafting Centre, based near Bala in North Wales. The centre developed the first commercial white water rafting operation in the UK in 1986, and since then has grown to become the largest and most well-respected rafting organisation in the UK. The Tryweryn is a dam released river so water is often flowing when other British rivers are dry, thus producing a unique year round white water venue.When we arrived at Canolfan Tryweryn we had two hours in which we managed to get four runs down the river.  Each trip down offered new and exciting challenges as we became more confident paddlers and the guides became more determined to get us wet! Each run down the river lasted approximately 20 minutes, and the rafting course is around 2km in length. It is a steep, rocky course and the river is classed as a grade 3/4. (This is a worldwide accepted rating that grades the technical difficulty of rapids on a river. Grade 1 is gentle flowing water, and grade 6 is considered commercially un-runnable).

The aim of the Youth Opportunity Fund is to involve young people, especially those who are hard to reach, in identifying positive activities and things to do, and to support their role as decision makers, grant givers and project leaders. The fund is part of the Every Child Matters initiative created by the Department for Children, Schools and Families. It is administered locally by the Youth Work in Cumbria Partnership.

Ayers Explorer Scouts have an extremely active programme of activities and it is thanks to the support from organisations such as Youth Work in Cumbria that we are able to make exciting activities affordable for our members.

 Yes, Run for the Children needs YOU! 

We're holding loads of fun runs up and down the country to raise money for children who've suffered from brain damage.  We need you to get sponsored to come, run and have a great time!  There are loads of activities after most of the runs, from lasar clay pigeon shooting to yoga, from street surfing to kick boxing and everything in between.  Look on the website for specific activities.

Or does that all sound a bit sporty for you?  Well, we also need marshalls, car park attendants and extra bods to help lay out the course and generally make each event a massive success.  It'll be great experience, look good on your Personal Profile and you may even get a little famous, as most of our runs are covered by local media.  Phone us on 01903 883941 or log onto our website at www.runforthechildren.co.uk 

Come on!  Let's hear it for Run for the Children!  Hooray!