The Woggle

The Newsletter of the 3rd Hayling Scout Group
November 2005

GSL's Update

100 Club Draw
The first draw of our 100 Club took place on Saturday 5th November. Congratulations to Karen Wells, Michelle Golden and Keith Yates who each won £25. The draw will take place on the 5th of each month, under the control of our 100 Club co-ordinator Lorna Simpson.

Another Successful Fireworks Night
Many thanks to those of you who came along to our Fireworks display - I hope you enjoyed the evening - I know Pete Goddard our trained pyromaniac does. Thanks to Roz & Simon Wilson for allowing us to use their land, and to all of those who were involved with the event. Based on our gate takings, approximately 100 families joined us, a tremendous turnout.

Jan passes lifeguard qualification
Congratulations to Jan Allgood, who successfully completed a crash course to qualify as a Pool Lifeguard.
To ensure the safety of our members, we need qualified instructors for all adventurous activities which includes swimming and Jan, a mother of a Beaver and a Scout, offered to renew her lifeguard qualification and this means we can now make use of, for example, the Mill Rythe School pool for section meetings.
From speaking to Jan, I know the week was very tiring (or something like that she said) but I am also sure that she felt a great personal satisfaction from achieving the required standard.

The Great Escape
25 Scouts & Explorers recently took part in an overnight challenge, organised by the Scout and Explorer leaders in the Winchester area. The darkness tested the map reading skills to the full and the challenges demanded ingenuity and teamwork to complete. All of the 5 teams completed the exercise, getting to bed at 5:00 am and then woken up again for breakfast at 9:00.

 

Top Award for Saturn Cubs

Three Cub Scouts from Saturn Pack have completed their top award of the Cub section, The Chief Scouts Award (Silver). To gain this award the Cubs had to complete various challenges and projects, including the Outdoor Challenge, for camping skills, the Caring challenge, including a project over 2 months based on caring for others, The Fitness challenge to show a steady improvement over 6 weeks and a personal challenge – something new to learn.

The photograph shows Brynmor Day, Max Thomas and Harrison Notter with Nigel Vallette the District Commissioner for Scouts who presented the awards.

Book Sale Saturday 26th November

Our next second-hand book sale will take place at the URC Hall, Mengham on the 26th November from 10:00 to 14:00.

There will be over 5000 books to choose from, fiction and non fiction, all sorted and ready for your perusal and purchase.

Once again Mark and his team have done a great job with the preparation, despite not having access to the HQ in the past 2 weeks.

 

Good Progress on our New Roof

Work started on our roof on the 31st October, and after just 2 weeks much has been achieved. Anyone walking past the HQ will see the security fencing and the scaffolding, but what cannot be seen are the three new trusses (see photo) inside the HQ, the stripping of the plaster board, exposing the corrugated sheets and the removal and partial replacement of the flat roof.

From the 14th November, work will start to replace the pitched roof with the modern membrane. If you have access to our website, you can see more details and photographs of the work being completed.

Roof Fund Nearly £32,000

Our fund which started in May 2005 has nearly reached £32,000, and has given us sufficient confidence to instruct "Roofline" to proceed with the work.

Whilst I was always positive about reaching the target this year, this is still a remarkable achievement. The final cost of the work will be slightly less than the original target of £35,000, but we are continuing with our efforts to cover the difference and also to rebuild our key funds.

 

Remembrance Day Parade

We had another good turnout for this years parade - thanks to all who joined in. Special thanks to Robert Durrell our flag bearer and to Liam Holden for laying a wreath on behalf of the Scouts of Hayling.

Meetings continue all over Hayling

Although our HQ is out of action (see Roof Report) our sections have continued to meet at various locations on Hayling. St Andrews Church Hall, The Billy Line, Hayling Firing Squad, Hayling Fire station, the beach, The Hayling School have all seen our young members in action.

The Camping Continues

We may be well into November, but for the Scouts and Explorers the camping season continues.

On the weekend of the 18th November they are planning the annual "Rhodi bashing camp" in West Sussex, where with the full permission of the camp warden, they cut and burn as much rhododendrum as they can achieve. This is great fun for those involved and also a worthwhile service for the campsite. Just to add to the challenge the Scouts are planning to build bivouacs from natural materials and sleep out in them overnight.
(Editor comment: I am staying at home in my bed!!!)

 

 

Christmas Post

All parents should receive a letter detailing our Xmas postal service. This service, running for the 22nd time this year, is important for three reasons:-

  1. It is seen as a good service by many people of Hayling Island
  2. We have an involvement with the local community and in particular those shops that sell our stamps
  3. It raises over £1,000 for our activities fund.

The activities fund is a separate fund held within the Group, solely for the activities for the Beavers, Cubs, Scouts and Explorers. The money raised this year will go towards sponsoring the activities at our Group Camp in 2006.

Therefore PLEASE will all of you help us to deliver on the two Sundays before Christmas. Details are provided on the separate sheet.

Diary of Events

November
26th Book Sale
30th Back in the HQ (I hope)
December
11th Xmas Post
18th Xmas Post
25th Xmas Day