The Woggle

The Newsletter of the 3rd Hayling Scout Group
March 2007

GSL's Update

Queen Scout Awards
Many congratulations to Alan Oakes and Robert Venus of our Explorer Unit on being presented with their Queen Scout Awards, the top award in Scouting.

To complete the awards Alan and Robert, both 18, gained competancy in a new skill, undertook a 9 month Community Service project, attended a residential training course and completed a 5 day expedition in wild country.

The awards were presented by Dick Whittington the County Commissioner for Hampshire Scouting who praised them both for their outstanding achievement. The presentation evening was attended by the Explorer Unit, the families of Alan and Robert and the leaders who had helped them throughout their time in Scouting.

Alan and Robert gave a short presentation on their awards and also thanked those who had helped and supported them.

The evening ended with refreshments prepared and served by the Group Development Team.

The photograph below shows Alan, Dick and Robert with the awards.

These awards are the first on Hayling for over 15 years and both Alan and Robert will now be invited to attend the St George's Day Parade and Service which is held annually at Windsor. The parade will be inspected by a member of the Royal Family.

100 Club Results
The winners for our latest draw were Sam Mill, Linda Hunter and Jean Yates who each win £25.

Chief Scout Awards for Redwood Beavers
Congratulations to James Lambert, Megan Hick and Thomas Spry who all received the Chief Scout Bronze Awards, the highest in the Beaver section from Nigel Valette the District Commissioner for Havant. To complete this award, James, Megan and Thomas completed challenge badges covering Craft, Community and Outdoors and also a personal project.

Explorer Flag presented by ACE.
Each section now has their own flag to use at ceremonies, on parades and for special events. The latest flag for the collection was one for the Explorer Scouts which was kindly sponsored by the Association for Charitable Endeavours (ACE), most famous for the Paris to Hayling cycle ride.

Paul Fisher of ACE made formal presentation to Simon Freston, one of the Explorers, and in return Paul was presented with one of our Centenary Neckerchiefs by Jill Saggers as a thank you for his and ACE's continued support to us over many years.

Well done and thanks to those who joined us on the 22nd February to mark 150 years since the birth of Baden-Powell our founder. We did have some problems with transport but eventually made the Havant Leisure Centre for a service, camp fire sing-song followed by a disco for the older sections.

Camping Continues

Explorers and Leaders from Hayling spent a very wet weekend in the New Forest with 500 others from Hampshire at the annual Winter Camp. As someone remarked, they have never seen the campsite looking so wet, but at least it was warm!

Bring a Friend Evenings

One of the Centenary Challenges is for each section to run a "Bring a Friend" evening. Jupiter Cub Pack held one of these with a traditional Scouting evening including fires, food and pioneering. The result has been the arrival of a number of new faces into Cubs.

Saturn Cub Pack have opted for a slightly different approach so far when the Leaders invited 4 ex-Scouts from Hayling who spent their time in the Cubs and Scouts during the 1940s and 1950s. The four, Colin Vaughan, Malc Sprinks, Mick Green and Henry Durrell planned an evening doing the things that they did as Scouts.

Unfortunately Henry was unable to make the evening due to personal reasons, but Colin, Malc & Mick did a great job entertaining the Cubs.

Jupiter Cubs are Champions
The Cubs from Jupiter Pack won the District Football competition. The event supported by Hayling United FC was held at the Hayling College with ten teams taking part, including two from Saturn Pack and the team from Jupiter Pack.

The Cubs from Jupiter Pack will now represent Havant District at the County Finals later in March.

And So are Eagles Scouts
At the same time at Warblington School, the Scouts of Eagle and Lion Troops were competing in the final of the Scout event. After a hard fought match, Eagle Troop beat the defending champions to win the trophy.

Book Sale Teams

Many thanks to those of you who have already responded to our appeal for help with the management of our Book Sales. We are still looking for more people willing to give just a few hours a year. If you can help then please contact Ian Hawke.