Finally, after a 18 months of not being able to go away thanks to Covid, the group is back to taking young people away as Scouting should be, firstly with a Beaver sleepover at Walton Firs, including this campfire. It’s great to be back doing things properly again after so long!
We’re very happy, for the first time in 18 months, to finally be able to get some Cubs back into the Scout Hut for our last Cub meeting before the summer holidays!
(And we also managed to get some of those who couldn’t make it as they were away early or isolating to join us on zoom at the end too!)
It’s the final Scouts night this Friday, and then we return with Beavers, Cubs and Scouts in the first week of September.
We hope you all have a good summer break, and look forward to seeing everyone in the Autumn.
To go along with Spring starting to be sprung at the Scout Hut – the good news is that Scouts will be moving back to ‘Orange’ covid readiness level from the end of March, so all sections can look forward to meeting in-person again after the Easter holidays.
We’ll only be able to meet outdoors at the moment, so we’ll be back for sessions in Old Deer Park (or other locations if we let you know!)
We’re very much looking forward to seeing everyone again in real-life 3D rather than on Zoom very soon!
We had some special visitors to our Cubs zoom meeting this week: Two owls, a Falcon and Paul from Horus Birds of Prey – who let the Cubs know all about these amazing birds and answers loads of questions. A fantastic visitor to the pack! (And next week it’s the Cubs turns with their pets or any insects they can find!)
For a weekend of activities at home, this week we’re taking part in Winter Camp 2021 online – check out https://wintercamp.org.uk/ and if submitting challenges out team code is WC1247.
Challenge 1 was making the Scout Logo out of things found around the house…..
We hope everyone has a Merry Christmas, and we look forward to seeing everyone back in the New Year after the Christmas break
Scouts have moved back to ‘Amber’ Covid Alert level, which means we can meet face-to-face again – so we’re looking forward to seeing everyone again over the next two weeks before our Christmas break!
Do keep an eye out for leaders emails to let you know what’s happening, especially as we’ll also be giving out all of our Beaver/Cub/Scout of the Year Awards and Baker Trophies which we’ve had to delay because of the lockdown.
There has been lots of activity around our hut, to make the area nearby more pleasant for everyone – and part of that has been making the derelict British Legion building next door more presentable, clearing graffiti and seven years build-up of overgrowth and dumped rubbish.
We have a long history with the British Legion in the group, and sadly there won’t be a remembrance Sunday parade this year due to the lockdown and pandemic, something we have always take part in – so our artwork this year is our part of this year’s remembrance weekend.
Donations to the British Legion’s Poppy appeal can be made here
An update for parents for North Richmond’s plans for the coming weeks, now that sadly we’re heading into lockdown again from tomorrow.
As we anticipated, that does mean that we can no longer meet in person after today as the National Youth Agency and Scouting Alert Level will change to ‘Red’ at midnight tonight, which prohibits all face-to-face meeting of young people an volunteers in Scouting.
Unlike the last lockdown, our leaders did have had time to prepare this time – and I hope everyone that was comfortable joining in with Cubs last night, and who will be at Beavers or the earlier-in-the-week-than-usual Scouts tonight enjoy their last face-to-face meeting at the Old Deer Park.
From next week, all of the sections will move over to Zoom meetings and adapt the programme accordingly – your section leaders will be in touch with all of the details!
So, this time, we’re not going to miss even one week of Scouting.
Looking at the government and Scout Associations current advice, we all have our fingers crossed that we’ll be able to return to face-to-face meetings soon after December the 2nd at the end of the lockdown.
In the meantime, we hope everyone keeps safe and well, and we’ll see you over zoom – and back in person in before not to long.
This weekend is our 36th annual Family camp – it’s a little different this year as we’re all camping at home, but our families still all together enjoying the ‘friendly’ competition! After setting up their camps, you might spot them around Richmond this afternoon taking photos for our photo hunt challenge!
