Category: Group News

EDITED (June 2021): The skip will remain in place in our car park for a longer term (until further notice). Please leave any donations of paper as per the below or call if you have a large amount that requires a one-off collection.

Unfortunately we have had to make the decision that it is no longer viable for us to recycle newspapers and we will not be making any further paper collections.

The skip will remain in place for a short time if you have a store of papers to donate, please leave them under the side of the skip.

If you would like to arrange a one-off final collection of any papers you have already stored, please call us on 03308 389812.

Thank you to all those who have kindly supported this important fundraiser over many years – we really appreciate all your support.

We’re holding our annual general meeting this year on Tuesday 29th September at 7.30 pm.

The meeting will be held via Zoom online due to Coronavirus social-distancing restrictions.

All parents, Scouts and volunteers are invited to join us.

We’re disappointed that we can’t run our activities as usual at the moment but we’re trying hard to stay connected with our members and there’s still plenty of work to do to keep the Group in a healthy position for when we can return to normal.

Volunteers are always needed, even in these strangest of times. Come along and find out about the plans we’ve got to make it even easier for you to help out.

All statutory AGM documents and meeting registration details can be found under Useful Links/AGM & Annual Reports

A fabulous list of over 100 activities kids can do at home, put together by UK Scouting.

The Great Indoors

“We know the coming days and weeks are going to be difficult for families across the UK, as the spread of Covid-19 causes schools to close. As the experts in developing skills and bringing adventure to young people, we want to do what we can to help.

While we normally love the great outdoors, we’ve pulled together some inspired indoor activity ideas (if we do say so ourselves). Keep your kids learning new skills and having fun (and avoid hearing ‘I’m bored’ every 30 seconds) all in #TheGreatIndoors.”

All Group meetings have now been cancelled until further notice.

Our HQ is also not currently available for use by any non-Scouting organisations or for private bookings for the immediate future.

The building is being regularly monitored to ensure it remains secure and in good order.

We will be keeping in regular contact with our members by posting here, via email and social media channels. We’ll also be sharing any news and activity ideas from Scouts Head Office, County and District whenever we receive these.

An update regarding paper collections will be posted nearer to the time of the next collection.

If anyone in our community needs our help or support, we’ll do our very best to help out – please get in touch.

 

 

Report from one of our valued leaders, Jonathan:

It doesn’t seem like a week since we were here at Snowball Plantation preparing for the cubs.  We were incredibly lucky with the weather and we had a fantastic time. 
We started with campfires, sing songs and S’mores on Friday night. Saturday morning started with the biggest breakfast I’ve ever seen, they just kept coming back for more!  Hunger satisfied we moved on to tie dye t-shirts, french knitting, bottle rockets and football. We left loads of time on this camp for exploring the woods on Saturday afternoon and then the cubs made postcards with some of the things they found.  We had Fish and Chips round the fire in the evening followed by a quiz and a then a quick history lesson, courtesy of the Horrible Histories song “All the Monarchs”  Sunday morning was wide games and more bottle rocket (because it had blown out of the tree it ended up in on Saturday, oops)
Huge thanks to Andy for arranging the camp and to Teresa, Jackie, Iwona, Thomas, Emma and Callum and to everyone involved in making it such a success. (**Admin would also like to thank Jonathan**)
Cheers,
Jonathan

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When Richard’s children became Leaders in our Group ‘a few’ years ago and he came along to help them out, I wonder if he imagined he’d still be lending us a helping hand when he reached his 90th birthday?!

Richard is a most amazing assistant to all our sections and a most valuable support to our leaders. He keeps a watchful eye and a hand on the kettle at the river every Friday in boating season, he’s a competent and experienced rifle shooting teacher, someone we can rely on to always open up the hut when someone’s going to be late or delayed, makes sure we never run out of juice and toilet roll (v. important job!) and many, many a Beaver, Cub and Scout will have enjoyed his humour and benefited from his gentle care as they have passed through the Group over the years.

Since Richard has done (and continues to do) such fantastic volunteering for us, we couldn’t let the occasion of this birthday milestone pass without a little celebration. On Friday evening, the Scouts presented Richard with a specially designed cake to take home and enjoy. The cake was accompanied with biscuits decorated in the style of the Sea Scout jumper which Richard shared with the Scouts and Leaders. Unfortunately, Richard and the scouts were not wearing their uniforms to match the cake and biscuits this week as the session involved messy jobs in the boat garage. I’m sure you’ll agree the goodies looked great anyway.

Thank you Richard for all your help and support and a very HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

 

Our intrepid travels Grace and Emma have both written to tell us about their recent amazing experiences at the jamboree in the USA and Canada and to thank everyone for their support.

Grace says:

This is an enormous thank you to everyone who helped me fundraising for the jamboree. It was the most amazing adventure I could have imagined and I am so grateful to all the support I have been given with it. It was an incredible experience which I will never forget, shared with lots of amazing people from all over the world and it just showed how major scouting has become and how it brings people together. I am so glad I have had this opportunity to try so many new things like scuba and using pistols and learn about how other people my age live and go scouting. Every second of it was wonderful and helped me become stronger and more aware of things all over the world.

New York was magical seeing all the incredible architecture and Times Square was a highlight. I loved how busy it was with so many people from different places gathered together and seeing all the famous points around the city. We went up World Trade 1 which is the highest point in Manhattan and we saw the entire city and we could see how overwhelmingly huge it was. It was 40 degrees when we arrived and it felt like being in an oven which was so nice.

The actual jamboree site in West Virginia was definitely my favourite part and I made so many friends there from countries from Columbia to Kenya, trying new activities everyday or just relaxing in the sun with people of all nationalities, if it it got too hot we would just go paddle boarding. The opening and closing ceremonies were incredible with Bear Grylls attending, SAS parachutists, Broadway singers, a world famous acapella band and the original person who sung the Lion Kings circle of life singing (not Elton John) and closing with an incredible drone show and fireworks. The site was so huge, it took an hour to walk from our base camp to get to the summit center. The evenings were amazing where there were base camp bashes with bands and disco lights. I don’t think anyone could come home with any complaints about any of it, it was truly a once in a lifetime experience.

Washington was my favourite city, it was clean and tidy, the people were really friendly and the buildings all looked very new and classy. I loved seeing the White House and the Washington monument, even better I was exploring the city with some of my closest friends who I have made on the jamboree journey.

In Toronto we went swimming in one of the Great Lakes which I thought was the sea it was so huge. It was really warm in there just like a bath and we spent so long on the beach. We also went to a Canadian families house for dinner for hosted hospitality which I really enjoyed as we could see how scouting is run in Canada but also because they had a pool.

The entire 3 weeks has just been magical surrounded by the things I love and exploring different parts of the world and this is why I am so grateful to everyone for helping me have the best, most eye opening and incredible experience I could ever think possible.

Many thanks for all the support,
Grace

Emma says:

I would just like to thank everyone who helped me in my journey to getting to the 24th World Scout Jamboree. It was AMAZING!
I am thankful to my group and my county for all their help. I made great friendships, saw New York, West Virginia, Washington, Niagara falls and Toronto. Made amazing memories! Experienced white water rafting, zip lining, paddle boarding to name a few activities. Experienced different cultures spoke with scouts from many countries, there was 45,000 scout participants attending, we camped next to scouts from Taiwan and Brazil. We met our buddy unit from Pennsylvania and had dinner with them. The jamboree’s opening ceremony was spectacular with a light drone show Recycled Percussion performed and Bear Grylls abseiled in and gave a great speech. The closing show had the Pentatonix perform and ended with an amazing firework and laser show.
After jamboree the UK contingent all went to Washington DC. We watched a baseball game in Baltimore. Then we moved on to Canada, we stayed with the 2nd Bramlea scout group who made us very welcome. We went to Niagara falls and Canada’s Wonderland, a big theme and water park. Before flying back from Toronto.
If anyone maybe thinking of attending the 25th World Scout Jamboree in 2023 in South Korea then all I can say is go for it!
I would be happy to speak with anyone who would like to know more about my experience.

Many thanks,
Emma

Our 2019 AGM will take place at the Group HQ, Green Lane on Sunday 30th June at 4pm.

ALL parents, members and volunteers are invited and most welcome to join us. This short meeting will be followed by tea, coffee and cake.

We are always looking for people to join the Group Executive Committee, who will be re-elected at the AGM. This friendly bunch of people meet approximately 6-8 times a year to assist with all the behind the scenes administration, ensuring that the Group continues to run as smoothly as possible. If you would like to know more about what this entails, how you can help, or would like any other details or information, please do get in touch so that we can chat with you about this before the AGM.

Part of our Scouting commitment is to help others so that we make a positive impact in our community. Kitchen for Everyone York is a volunteer organisation that provides food, help and support to the homeless and vulnerable in York and with your help we would like to support their Christmas Gift Bag Appeal this year.

The items they are looking for are all listed below and we will be putting a collection box in the scout hut for you to add to over the next few weeks. Please bring your goodies in by Friday 23rd November at the latest so that we can get them delivered to KEY in good time.

Many thanks for your support.

 

*** UPDATE: Sorry, this event has now been cancelled ***

This years Christmas fundraising event is a Bonkers Christmas Quiz! Suitable for all the family, there’ll be lots of fun, games, challenges and of course, great prizes! The quiz will be on Saturday the 1st of December from 6pm – 9pm. Save the date, and more info will be coming soon.