We hope you’ve all had a wonderful summer holiday and you’re now looking forward to getting back to school (maybe?) and back to scouts, cubs and beavers (definitely!).

Here are the important dates for when section meetings will begin this term.

Beavers and Cubs: first meetings week beginning Monday 12th September

Scouts: Thursday 8th September. Please note that Friday boating sessions have now finished so there will be NO boating 26th Aug or 2nd Sept.

Next paper collection day is on Saturday 3rd September

As always, we really need as many people as possible to help with this so we can get the job done as quickly and easily as we can.  Please get in touch if you think you will be coming along so that we know how many people to expect. We will need at least 2 drivers and 2 driver assistants if you can offer any help with this too.

Bag2School clothes collection

We’ve another date booked for a Bag2School collection on Friday 14th October. Bags should arrive a few weeks before but any bags are accepted. Give your summer wardrobe a clear out and start saving up your clothes to help us raise money for the Group.

We’ve had a facelift!

Finally, we’d like to thank Andrew Thirlwell and Phil Bodmer for taking time out of their holidays to give the outside of the scout hut a much-needed coat of paint, making the place look much more presentable and helping to preserve the old building a little longer. No more patchwork!

Thanks also to Kathryn for organising a car boot sale trip and everyone who helped to clear out the Hold of many years of accumulated pre-loved items (aka junk!). This has freed up lots of space and will help us start to get our storage more organised – we’ll just have to try hard not to fill it with more junk!

Thank you all for coming along today and supporting the Group and particularly for helping make the afternoon special for Peter’s celebration. It was wonderful to have such a great turnout – insufficient chairs is rarely a problem at AGMs and committee meetings but one we were happy to have today!

If you wish to view the Treasurer’s Report and Accounts, click here.

We hope you enjoyed the occasion and experienced a little bit of what your children get up to during their time in Beavers, Cubs and Scouts. Perhaps you will also have taken away a renewed appreciation of the effort and time put in by all our Leaders to offer these opportunities to your children.

As the Group Chair, Tony, mentioned at the AGM, we are always on the look out for more parents (or any members of the community) to join the committee and we would be really pleased to hear from anyone who thinks they may be interested in helping to support the Group or indeed helping out directly with any of the Groups Sections. No specific qualifications or experience are necessary, just a willingness to get involved and work as a team in the best interests of the Group. We’d love to hear from you!

We’re delighted to report that our Group Scout Leader, Peter Swann, has been honoured with a very special award from the Scout Association – the Silver Wolf.

The Silver Wolf was introduced by Lord Baden-Powell and remains the Scout Association’s highest award for service to Scouting. The Silver Wolf is the unrestricted gift of the Chief Scout and is given in recognition only of services to Scouting of the most exceptional nature.

Peter has been a Leader with the Group for almost 55 years after joining as a scout himself in 1953.  The Group is very pleased that Peter’s support for and dedication to the Group and to Scouting has been acknowledged with this award. Over this time, many hundreds of local children have passed through as members of the Group and benefitted not only from Peter’s instruction but his generosity and kindness too. Some will even have brought their children back to be members as well!

We’re sure you’ll all want to wish Peter many congratulations on receiving this well-deserved award. The Silver Wolf award will be presented at our Family Day on Sunday 26th June and we hope all current members and their families and any former members and supporters will be able to attend to help Peter celebrate this wonderful achievement and the receiving of his award.

Thank you so much to all our volunteers for such a great turnout yesterday for our paper collection and maintenance day.  It’s so much more pleasant when it’s not raining!

The paper collection seems to have been boosted thanks to the extra flyers sent out in the last few weeks so thanks also to those who have helped with delivering those.

The scout hut grounds are looking refreshed after a much-needed trim and the highlight of the day was discovering a bundle of old newspapers dating back as far as 1929. Our young (and not so young!) volunteers were excited to read about times gone by, including the Queen’s Coronation and a look back as far as Queen Victoria. You never know what might happen on a paper day – why not come down next time and find out for yourself!

Sunday 17th April

Approximate timings 1pm – 4pm

The annual St George’s Day service will take place this year in Museum Gardens as the Minster is unavailable due to preparations for the Mystery Plays. This means there are different arrangements from previous years – exact timings will be given at the next meetings in the first week back after the Easter holidays and updated on this page.

SCOUTS AND CUBS: will meet at the Eye of York (outside Castle Museum) at 1pm, parade to Museum Gardens for the service and then parade back to the Eye of York with dismissal expected around 3.30pm. Please bring some change for the collection.

BEAVERS: will meet at Museum Gardens in time for the service and will join the parade as it returns to the Eye of York.

Please note this is the one occasion in our calendar when ALL members are expected to attend, looking smart in full uniforms. Please check you have all the correct uniform items now so that there is time to organise anything that might be missing.

Beavers and cubs uniform: sweatshirt, activity/dark trousers (no jeans), Group neckerchief, clean black shoes (no trainers)

Scouts uniform: sea scout jumper, hat, black trousers (no jeans), Group neckerchief, black socks, clean black shoes (no trainers)

Thank you

We were very pleased to receive a total of 249kg of your old clothes, bags and shoes for our collection this week. Not only that but you sent them on time, tidily packed and with only acceptable items in them – well done! Thank you everyone.

We raised £99.60 – only 1kg short for a full £100!

Don’t forget to keep collecting your vouchers and bringing them to the scout hut so we can help the Group to get some new equipment.

Sainsbury’s will be issuing vouchers up until May 3.