Wokingham District, Berkshire
On Saturday 6th July 2019 the 38th Annual General Meeting of 1st Woosehill Scout group was held. The new campfire circle came into it’s own with Beavers, Cubs, Scouts and their families enjoying a great time singing campfire songs around the fire. Many thanks to everyone that attended and special thanks to those involved in organising the event.
Documents from the AGM are available here.
An inaugural group campfire was held on the 29th April to celebrate the completion of the new Fire Circle. The usual songs were sang around the fire whist steady stream of hot chocolate flowed.
Huge thanks to Steve and everyone who helped build the new fire circle and to all the leaders and children that came along to see it first ablaze and make it a special night to remember.
Eager Beavers at 1st Woosehill Scouts pulled out all the stops to lay on a special treat for the most important ladies in their lives! The youngsters opened the Scout Hut doors for the annual and much-anticipated Mother’s Day Cafe and pulled out all the stops to show their mums how much they mean to them. Once greeted at the door by their ‘waiter’, each mum was accompanied to a table and asked for their refreshment order. Having delivered a hot drink and specially decorated cookie, the Beaver the joined them for some time together. As if that wasn’t enough, the Beavers then presented each lady with a gift bag of goodies that they had made earlier in the session. To help put on the event, a group of dads helped out with the crafts and manned the kitchen, making hot drinks and doing the washing up afterwards – many thanks we couldn’t have done it without you!
Beavers went the extra mile to help those in need in Wokingham by completing a night hike from their Scout Hut in Woosehill to deliver food donations to the Foodbank collection point at Waitrose. The youngsters filled their backpacks with goodies such as tea, rice, pasta, breakfast cereal and toiletries and then walked nearly two miles in the dark to make the drop off. Along the way, Beavers practiced their Green Cross Code as part of their Safety badge. Well done to all of them for being so committed and kind.
Super Beavers from 1st Woosehill proved themselves to be Superheroes with their daring stunts on Camp. Twenty five Swifts and Kingfisher Beavers spent the weekend at Youlbury Scout Camp in Oxford at the beginning of September. The boys and girls were challenged to complete five daring tasks – zip wire with 5m belay descent; crate stacking, archery, G3 swing and fire lighting skills – to prove what superheroes they are! When not flying through the air or mastering dangerous skills, the Beavers also enjoyed overnight camping in Bell tents, hot chocolate and marshmallows around the campfire and bacon butties for breakfast. As an added bonus, all the youngsters, Leaders and volunteers were rewarded with the Damboree 2018 badge, part of a national Scouting campaign that encouraged Beavers to spend a night sleeping in a tent.
Youngsters from 1st Woosehill Scout Group beavered away doing good deeds at home to raise over £120 for the Ollie Young Foundation. Swifts and Kingfisher Beavers helped out their families and neighbours doing such jobs as gardening, washing up, making beds and tidying toys to raise money for the local charity which they had chosen to support as part of their Community Impact badge. Ollie Young’s grandmother, Barbara, came to the Scout Hut to collect the cash and thank all the Beavers for their help and commitment.
Swifts and Kingfisher Beavers had an amazing evening at the Apple Store in The Oracle learning to become computer designers of the future. The youngsters found about technology and data, old computers and how to research them on the iPad, were shown how to work an Apple Pen and then used it to design a computer for the future! Beavers had such wonderful ideas as a computer shaped like a bunny, one that listened to commands, one where you simply had to hover your fingers over the keypad and one entrepreneur even designed their own brand name and logo! Thanks to the staff in the store, the Beavers were all able to complete their Digital – Citizen badge at the end of the session.
Swift and Kingfisher Beavers left the safety of their Lodges at the Scout Hut to scale new heights of achievement at the Junior Treetop Adventure at Go Ape, Swinley Forest. The two Colonies joined together in the last meeting of the summer term to tackle the high wire obstacle course, finishing with a thrilling zip wire ride down from the trees to the forest floor. All the Beavers completed the course and showed great courage and perseverance overcoming the physical challenges and, even more impressively, conquering any personal fears. Maybe we should call them Squirrels, and not Beavers, in future!
Beavers from 1st Woosehill Scouts were thrilled to be able to cuddle new born lambs when they visited Lockey Farm in Arborfield, Reading. The youngsters went on a guided tour of the farm and saw where the resident 4,500 hens lay 30,000 eggs a week! They also learned all about the sheep with their new born lambs and got to sit and hold some of the babies. One sheep even produced a lamb while the Beavers were there – a really special end to their trip!
Any 1st Woosehill Beavers that had ever wondered what the difference is between a rabbit and a guinea pig, what to do with a poorly goldfish or how best to care for a Leopard Gecko had all their questions answered (and more!) when they visited Pets at Home, Winnersh.
Swifts and Kingfishers were given a guided tour to learn all about the animals, fish and reptiles kept there and take a peek behind the scenes to find out how the knowledgeable team run things which helped the Beavers on their way to earn their Animal Friend Activity badge. The lucky youngsters even got to cuddle guinea pigs and hamsters and ended the visit by giving the goldfish their tea!