It may be mid-winter but that's no reason for the Scouts to not be completing parts of the Outdoor Challenge badge. Tonight, we were learning about gas lamp and gas stove safety including how to set them up correctly and light them.
BEAVERS PET SHOP VISIT
FRIDAY NOVEMBER 3rd
Our Friday Beavers spent the evening visiting Pets at Home. The staff introduced them to some of the pets and the Beavers got to interact with some of the animals.
STROKING A RAT
DISTRICT COOKING COMPETITION
SUNDAY OCTOBER 22nd
We had enough Scouts for one team at the District Cooking Competition. The Scouts don't know what they are going to be asked to cook until they arrive. Because of this, all the practicing will only get our team so far. On the day it comes down to teamwork and general cookery skills. The teams present each course on plain paper plates so that the judges don’t know which team’s food they are judging. Our team came a very commendable third.
Judging main courses
COOKING PRACTICE
THURSDAY OCTOBER 19th
At the last meeting before the District cooking competition, the Scout Troop spent the evening brushing up on more cookery skills. It was a dry evening so we setup four kitchens for four patrols outside the Scout hall to give them that outdoor cooking competition atmosphere.
GOLD
THURSDAY OCTOBER 5th
This week the Scout Leaders presented another Chief Scout's Gold Award. The Gold Award is the very highest award a Scout can achieve. This is our 3rd one this year.
BEAVER OBSTACLE WEEKEND
SUNDAY OCTOBER 1st
The 3GP Scout Leaders, Cub leaders and a couple of Scouts spent Saturday building obstacles at Crow camp for the District obstacle day on Sunday.
80 Beavers from across Romford District had a wonderful time, particularly on the Areal Runway that our Scouts and leaders were operating.
At the end of the event, the District Commissioner presented Connor (Ex 3GP Scout, 3GP Cub Leader and Crow Camp Centre Manager) with a Chief Scout's Commendation.
CUBS COOKING
SEPTEMBER 29th
It must be the time of year. This week our Friday Leopard Cubs were following the example of the Scouts and cooking a stir fry.
BEAVERS COOKING
SEPTEMBER 29th
Tonight, our Friday Polar Bear Beavers were making Pizza flat breads over a fire. By all accounts, the results were scrummy.
SCOUTS COOKING
SEPTEMBER 28th
This evening the Scouts took part in an inter-patrol cooking competition. Each team was given the equipment, ingredients and a set of instructions. They had to follow the instructions and present a dish to our judge.
GROUP AGM
SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 23rd.
Our Beavers, Cubs and Scouts spent the evening at Crow Camp attending our Group AGM. There was a tight rope for a bit of adventure, a campfire and of course marshmallow toasting.
SCOUT SUMMER CAMP 2023
The Scouts have been away to Summer Camp in the Peak District.
This week we challenged two teams of Scouts to build trebuchets and fire water bombs at each other. Not wanting to use single use rubber (and have to pick up loads of tiny bits of coloured latex) we decided to teach the Scouts to make paper water bombs.
Each team needed to orgonise themselves into two sub groups. The first would pioneer the hevy artillery, the second would construct the ammunition. Finally they would come together for battle on the church green.
Teams quickly learnt that for best results, they needed to minimise the time between arming the munitions (filling bomb with water) and launching.
GOLD
THURSDAY JULY 6th
Two more of our Scouts have been presented with the top award a Scout can get, the Chief Scouts Gold Award. These two have been having a bit of a healthy competition for the last two years to see who would complete the award first. They completed the nine challenge badges in different orders meaning the lead changed a few times over the last year or so but they still managed to finish the Gold at the same time.
Congratulations to them both.
LITTER PICKING
The Scouts spent two weeks at Raphaels Park, litter picking with the friends of Raphael Park. As usual, the Scouts specialised in litter picking the river but this time we had to dismantle a lot of dams.
FEEDING THE DUCKS
This week our Friday Beavers were at Raphaels Park litter picking and feeding the ducks.
CREATIVE HATS
Tonight our Friday Beavers made hats from materials they found within the woods at Crow Camp. The meeting was finished with a few rounds of tug of war.
BACKWOODS COOKING
This week our Friday Leopard Cubs were at Crow Camp backwoods cooking.
SURVIVAL
THURSDAY MAY 4th
The older Scouts spent the weekend at Survival camp, building shelters and cooking food back woods style.
ST GEORGES DAY PARADE
SUNDAY APRIL 23rd
This must have been the wettest St George's Day Parade ever. Both Beaver colonies, both Cub packs and the Scouts were in Collier Row for the parade to Corpus Christi Church.
It started raining before we started and continued for the whole parade but this didn't put our young members off.
CROW CAMP
FRIDAY APRIL 21st
Beavers and Cubs were at Crow Camp. As well as the usual playing and exploring they helped the site manager plant some new hedges.
The Beavers planted Hawthorn saplings whilst the Cubs planted a row of Silver Birch trees. The Cubs also got to help out with wheel Barrowing chippings to where they were needed. It was all part of leaving the campsite better than they found it.
FIRE STATION VISIT
FRIDAY MARCH 31st
Our Friday Beavers and Cubs visited Romford Fire Station. Tuesday Cubs will visit after Easter. They learnt all about the equipment stored on a fire engine, had a go spraying water and got to see behind the scenes in the fire station.
PIONEERING
THURSDAY MARCH 30th
Term ended with a bit of heavy pioneering for the Scouts. Three teams, three towers and a lot of coloured balls thrown.
COOKING
THURSDAY MARCH 23rd
Our Scouts haven't cooked anything on a fire since last summer so the leaders decided to set them a challenge. Five teams raced to produce egg fried rice, over a fire, in the rain!
There was a lot of smoke and not everyone had a tasty snack but we all had fun.
MOTHERS DAY
Friday March 19th
Our Friday Cubs also decided to have a flower inspired meeting for Mothers day but their activities were a little more mucky so they headed outside.
First of all, leaves were swept up from the patio and the existing garden area around the tree was dug out.
Meanwhile flowers were delicately planted into pots to send home for mum.
By the time the Cubs had finished for the evening, the garden had been replanted and refreshed for another year.
MOTHERS DAY
Tuesday March 14th
The Cubs themselves insisted that we embargo these pictures until after the weekend so as not to spoil the surprise for their mothers. The leaders weren't sure how an entire pack of cubs felt they were each going to hide a bunch of flowers and produce them five days later still in pristine condition but we would do our part to keep the secret.
Each of our Tuesday Cubs created and carefully wrapped their own bunch of flowers before attaching a message on a small card.
ORIONTEERING
Not wanting the Cubs to have all the glory, the Scouts also started the year by winning a trophy, or more accurately retaining a trophy. The Bill Adams Trophy for Orienteering.
3rd Gidea Park entered two teams in this year's event and our teams finished in 1st and 3rd place. Members of 3GP could also be found in all of the Explorer Scout teams. A Beaver and a Cub also came along to support and completed the course with a leader.
SCOOTER RALLY
Our cubs have started the year rather well by winning the district scooter rally held at Crow Camp.
DISABILITY AWARENESS
JANUARY 27th
This week our Friday Beavers have been learning about disabilities. In the picture above they have been learning about how some people need to be fed through a tube and button in their tummy.
The opportunity to use a wheel chair looked like fun but the Beavers soon discovered that it was hard work, uncomfortable on the hands and not as easy as it looked.
WINTER CAMP 2023
JANUARY 21st - 22nd
It was sub-zero when 11 Scouts arrived at Crow Camp on Saturday morning for our Winter Camp but with little wind and plenty of sunshine, it was looking good. The frost had melted under the trees so pitching tents was easy enough. Next the Scouts set about pioneering an aerial runway. Not a Beaver size runway like the one we built in October, this would be Scout size!
The top and bottom of the runway.
Stand Back! Tiffin Chefs at work.
Once the sun set, we needed to find something sensible to keep the Scouts occupied and warm. Two Scouts cooked dinner for us all under the close supervision of the leaders. The rest of the campers were divided into three teams, spread into various indoor spaces that kept away the worst of the outside chill. Each team was initially told to make team hats before being given a small expedition stove, ingredients and instructions to make Tiffins. The hats were hit and miss but the Tiffins were superb.
How cold is too cold?
This was the question we asked ourselves. There was a hard frost on the tents when we woke up but inside, the Scouts were warm enough. Our kitchen diner was warm except below ankle level. Despite multiple layers of socks, we struggled to keep feet warm. In the end, we decided that when the “obvious natural method” of melting the ice in the toilet bowl doesn’t work, it’s a good indicator that its getting too cold!
RIGHT: The Saturday evening fire kept us all warm until we strolled too far away from it.
