JOTT 2011: JAMBOREE ON THE TRAIL

 Saturday 14th May marked Sittingbourne & Milton Districts hike as part of the Jamboree on the Trail 2011.

1st Sittingbourne scouts took part, along with other local scout groups to walk the almost 13 Km between Canterbury East and Whitstable railway stations, mainly along the famous “Crab and Winkle Way”.  En route we visited the Norman leper church of St Nicholas, where we received a very hospitable welcome and learnt about its fascinating history.

Our thanks go to Ron Glister of 10th Sittingbourne for all his hard work in planning the route and visit to St Nicholas’ and to everyone that took part and made it such an enjoyable day.

Please click on the above  photo collage to enlarge.

RED NOSE DAY

On Wednesday 23rd. March the whole group took part in a talent night to raise funds for comic relief.

Many talents and skills were on show, including musical solo’s of cornet, piano,recorder,guitar and a harmonica. The beavers shown some football skills. Also on show were song and dance and a magic trick. Leaders also took part showing their  other side.

In fact just look at the video;

Go to you tube and search for edited comic releif.wmv  Note the spelling error it had been posted by gslgaryable.  Not yet worked out how to set up link maybe for next video but please do try and watch.

Power Kiting

On Saturday the 26th March the Scouts were invited to transform from complete novices at power kiting, to competent pilots. The event was held by the Kent Scouts Air Activities team at Capstone Country Park in Gillingham Kent.

After a safety briefing and “how to fly” instruction it was straight on to the “smaller” 2.5M kites. The lack of wind proved a challenge to us novices to get these up, but with the excellent guidance from the instructors we were soon having a great time.

As the wind picked up, we moved on to the more powerful kites, these were a lot harder on the muscles, and even in the still fairly light winds, capable of dragging you along the ground. (Yes I did go over more than once!)

Some of us had the opportunity to try using the kites to pull us along in a buggy, and one of our Scouts was given the honour of flying the teams brand new sport kite which he described as “Epic”.

Having only ever flown” traditional” kites in the past I for one was truly impressed by pulling power of these wind powered beasties, and I’ll certainly be back for more!

If you’d like to know more about the Kent Scouts Air Activities team, look them up on their website at  http://www.kentscouts.org.uk/pageview.php?menu_id=503 Paul Phillips. Scout Leader.

AFRICAN SHOW & TALK

The beaver colony listened and watched with intent as Major Karen Ramsay bought in some items to show and talk of her experiences spent in Africa.

Major Ramsay, along with her husband, Major David Ramsay had spent many years in the Zambian region of the continent bringing up a young family at the time. She talked of their work with the people and social care provided but also of the fun the family had, which showed with many of the items the beavers could look and touch, the most popular being the drum.

This talk went towards the beavers challenge awards covering global & friendship.

GROUP GROWS

The scout group continues in its growth with an increase of 4 members from last years census figures, which now gives the total membership of 30 for the group. This has seen a steady increase year on year during the 4 years of the re-birth of the group.

Two more beavers were invested into the colony on Wednesday 9th. March, bringing the colony total to a dozen.

On the same night, the cub pack did not want to be outdone, so they also invested 2 new members. This brings the pack count to a dozen cubs and with 2 new faces this week as well the pack is now the fastest growing section.

During the next term the sections will see some members moving onto the next stage of their scouting life, so it is good to see new faces, which only come along because of the fun their friends are having within the group and parents knowing that their children are being shown good values with excitement in a safe environment.