1st Roade Scouts - BASECAMP Dec 2023 Newsletter

Official Newsletter of 1st Roade Scouting

December 2023

BASECAMP

All hands to the pump Badger’s Blog Lest We Forget Discover Inside

1 year of Beavers full Going global + Plenty more Squirrels to bursting

Inside this month’s BASECAMP Badger’s Blog

An update from our Group Scout Leader (GSL)

Lest We Forget

A Remembrance Day parade full of pride

Since we last spoke

News from the 1st Roade Scouting community

Para, Para, Paracord

It’s all our crafty Cubs want for Christmas it seems!

Beaver twins to the rescue A visit to Hazard Alley inspires Lyla & Star

Making Waves

We dive in full length to look at the Swimmer badge

All hands to the pump

Our Scouts get access all areas at Mereway Fire Station

Squirrels, fully invested We look back at a first full year of our Squirrels drey

Going Global

7 weird, wacky Christmas customs, inspired by our Scouts

Rover Returns

Big plans ahead for Beavers’ leader Hedgehog

Log in to Online Scout Manager

Badger’s blog.

Welcome back to BASECAMP; the official monthly e-newsletter that celebrates everything that is great about 1st Roade Scout Group.

They say Christmas is the season of goodwill, and I’m feeling it right now.

Those of you who know me outside of scouting, know how much I love a celebration. I love a street party, I love getting the family around, and I love a good parade - be it Birthdays, Christmas, Jubilee, Coronation, St Georges Day, a good old fashioned Sunday roast and, of course, Remembrance Sunday.

What I’ve realised recently is that it all boils down to community spirit, especially when it brings out the very best in people.

I’ve been part of the scouting parade on

Remembrance Sunday now for almost 30 years. Someone recently asked if I’d been doing it for near on 100 years, to which I quickly put them right... ‘Badger style’!

In all that time, I don’t recall a parade so well attended by the group and so well observed by all the children. Yes it was wet, and very cold, but I was so proud.

However I am prouder of the comments I see from the local community praising our little people for their impeccable display.

I, and all the other leaders, happily volunteer our time to make it all work, and to see the children draw such praise that shines such a positive light on what we do at 1st Roade, then that’s all we really ask.

Christmas is indeed a time for goodwill and the goodwill around 1st Roade at the moment, because of your children, is definitely keeping me warm this winter.

Enjoy December, and Happy Christmas.

Badger

Lest we forget.

Add in our leaders and our “We commented on numbers on show, paying how all the children respect for the fallen, were brilliant. They reached 77 – one of the never moaned about largest scouting turn outs the rain or the cold.

They were a real credit we have seen for many a year. Incredible. to scouts and their parents.“ Yes, the conditions were miserable, and it was an early Sunday morning start, but it didn’t stop 64 of our young people – from 4 year old Squirrels to 13 year old Scouts – turning out in full uniform for the village’s Remembrance Sunday parade.

We asked the group to come together and do 1st Roade proud – and you all did exactly that, during an impeccably observed church service at St Marys, and also during the parade, set to the beat of Fox’s drum at the front, to the wreath presentation at Memorial Green.

And it didn’t stop there with some of our young people, not well enough to battle the conditions and join the parade, showing their own respects whilst in full scouting uniform at home. We love seeing the eagerness to get involved.

10 OCTOBER

Our flag bearers – Amelia, Seb, Oscar and Scarlett – carried our colours, backed by the colour parties. Each was handpicked by the section leaders for duty after ‘exhibiting behaviours that are strongly aligned to the scouting values.’

The 1st Roade Scouts wreath was respectively laid on the memorial by Ava (Scouts), holding hands with 5 year old Squirell, Luke.

So proud.

Check out the full programme

They were all brilliant, standing in the pouring rain.

Not one of them complained or became restless.

Since Panto details we last spoke Over 100 young people, parents, carers and leaders will be heading to the Deco Theatre for our group trip to see Cinderella on 5 Dec. We ask that everybody meets at 5:30 at the theatre. The performance starts at 6pm prompt. Please wear uniform.

The panto lasts 2 1/2 hours,

including the ice cream break - so we ask that you return to collect at 8:30pm from the theatre.

PREBOOKED TICKETS ONLY

Beavers: Full to Bursting.

the football club. The Beavers leadership team are expecting 35 children The ‘Sorry, no vacancies’ signs are up on our Beaver at the Tuesday sessions colony now, and it is likely from early 2024. Yes, we are THAT popular. they will stay in place for the next 12 months.

Parents and carers of older Squirrels need not Whilst we never like turning away new faces - panic. We have reserved we believe every child has spots for Squirrels moving up an age group so they the right to adventure can continue their we are now at maximum capacity we can inspire at scouting journey.

This month’s recommendation to work towards your Book Lovers badge.

The new festive adventure from numberone bestselling author Tom Fletcher is a real gift. The Christmasaurus is back as a mysterious old copy of A Christmas Carol comes to life, and Ebenezer Scrooge himself emerges from its pages - Christmas is suddenly in danger.

Can William, Santa and the Christmasaurus find a way to return Scrooge to the book and save Christmas, before it's too late?

Having been a massive part of 1st Roade Scouting over the past decade, Bear (Troy) has taken a decision to step back from leading the Scouts troop for personal reasons.

His boundless energy, outward bounds skills, bushmanship and dedication to the scouting values have helped inspire many a Scout.

We’d like to thank Bear for all he has done.

Winter Term Subs.

£40 subs for the Winter Term, starting in January 2024, will start being collected on 19th December. We ask that subs are paid 2 weeks before the start of term

Birthday Roll call. books, jigsaws, craft Call it an online jumble kits and lego that are sale or online charity full, complete and in a shop if you will, but new/nearly new have you checked out condition by re-selling our Nearly New them at jumble sale Christmas selling page prices. on Facebook?

With 100% of all sales being donated to 1st Roade as a fundraiser, we are giving new life to nearly new toys,

Stocking fillers, Xmas bits and unused gifts have also been donated for resale.

CLICK HERE TO VIEW

Everyone connected to 1st Roade Scouts would like to wish a big scouting Happy Birthday, in December, to:

Sophie Toby Chester Eavie Carter Fawn Have a fab day, however you choose to celebrate.

Tis the season.

From Christmas craft to Christmas parties and discos, there’s so much festive stuff going on at 1st Roade during December.

So, please remember to keep checking OSM (Online Scout Manager) for times/dates

We need you!

Can you offer a much needed and inspiring helping hand to our Scout troop (aged 10+)?

The Scouts are keen to add new parent/adult volunteers to the ranks for their weekly Tuesday meets at the football club (7.30pm-9pm). We provide free training and can arrange all the necessary checks and insurances.

If you are interested, contact BADGER.

Check out the full programme

What has your child achieved outside of Scouts?

From arts, drama, and music to sporting achievements or hobbies, we are always looking to celebrate new and exciting things the young people of 1st Roade get up to away from school and scouting.

Learnt to ride a bike? Started collecting stamps? Become a green-fingered gardener?

Brilliant at Ballet or won Man of the Match at football? BASECAMP would like to know, especially if there’s a badge up for grabs.

Email roade.treasurer@hotmail.com and we will do our best to include your news and photos.

Sorry, No [Name] tonight.

Tired.

X

marks the camp spot.

Ahoy swashbucklin’ Beaver shipmates, here’s a date to flag in your diaries for next year.

All Beavers will be invited to a 2-night Pirate themed weekend camp out at The Quarries Scout Campsite, in Cosgrove on 17-19 May 2024.

There’s likely to be buried treasure to find on scavanger hunts, maps to follow, messages in bottles, gold coins, campfires and flags to be designed.

More details, including the price, will come in the new year, so keep a close eye on OSM.

Space on our Tuesday sessions is now at a premium with record numbers turning up each week, and our waiting lists getting longer by the day.

We love that so many people see value in what we do, but it does mean we have to tighten up on attendance to fulfill the interest.

So, we’d like to advise parents and carers that we will be implementing a new ‘3-strikes and you’re out’ rule on non communicated - non attendance from the start of the January 2024 Winter term.

This means if your child does not attend 3 consecutive Tuesdays - and we don’t hear of a valid reason each week - then we’ll assume no further interest and have no alternative but to remove them from the group* with their place reallocated to someone new.

We fully appreciate that sickness happens suddenly, and activities can often clash – but let us know. And ideally do so in writing by email or whatsapp as soon as you can – including days well in advance where possible.

A ‘not tonight’ Whatsapp group message 30 minutes before the session starts is unfair on the leaders, who are planning for full turnouts.

A massive thank you.

A massive thank you to the 82% of parents and carers in our scouting family who have already paid the £10 annual badge contribution. We’d give each of you a ‘Thank you’ badge of your very own if we could.

We are on target to be awarding over 240 badges across all sections again this term, so your timely payments of this new £10 contribution has eased the burden on us no end.

To the remaining 18% of you still to make this invaluable one-off payment, please do so on OSM as soon as possible. It was due on 1 November.

The 3-strike Rule.

Log in to Online Scout Manager

Para, Para Paracord.

All I want for Christmas is a paracord bracelet! Or so our Cubs say.

That was the message from some of our crafty Cubs, who literally went potty for Paracord in an evening of knotting and twisting to form rather fetching accessories - even if they took a little longer than we expected.

Onlookers may have been bemused as to why the young people were so excited about something resembling a ‘super thick shoelace’, but not our Cub leader, Fox. Fox knows.

“They loved the paracord craft tent at County Cub camp and a couple of them would have spent the whole weekend making bracelets if we’d let them.” Thankfully, they didn’t but it did lead to a Tuesday evening session which went down a treat.

And it was fab to see the Cubs sending through the photos- via Whatsapp - of the bracelets they’d finished off at home.

Some even wore them into school such was their pride.

What parents and carers probably don’t know is that paracord craft is big business and we can’t move for Christmas Paracord decoration videos on Youtube.

Search Paracord Christmas Ornament and be inspired

Beaver twins to the rescue.

Ask our Beaver leader Owl and she will tell you: Scouting gives you skills for life. But in the case of 6-year-old Beaver twins Star and Lyla those skills, learned at a particular Tuesday session back in July, may well just have been life-saving.

When Star and Lyla joined their fellow Beavers on a rescheduled visit to Hazard Alley, it was a chance to learn all about what to do in an emergency, how to stay calm and, most of all, not panic: do the right thing. From crossing roads to calling 999, it was meant to be a fun, practical but pretend experience.

But when nan Linda slipped in the shower, smashing her head and knee against the wall, and laid motionless on the floor, the girls’ pretend learnings became all too real, much closer to home.

“I couldn’t see any blood but when I realised I couldn’t move I thought that’s me done” nan tells BASECAMP. “I was already in so much pain.”

Enter Star and Lyla; Beaver twins to the rescue. “They were so good. They didn’t panic or anything and they knew who to ring and get help immediately.”

The girls had acted on instinct with Lyla using nan’s phone to dial for help and clearly explain what had happened.

“Lyla’s always been very protective of her ol’ nan and I asked her how she knew what to do. She said, ‘Hazard Alley of course’.”

Nan’s still had pain and aches down her side since, but she’s well aware of what could have been had it not have been for the girls’ quick actions.

That activity trip out was certainly worth it’s weight in gold.

A trip to Hazard Alley with Beavers help Star and Lyla become superheroes.

Making Waves.

Freestylin’. For this month’s activity badge spotlight, we are diving full length into the Staged Swimmer Badge (1-5), and it is a timely choice with a couple of our young people being awarded different stages during November.

The Swimmer badge is obviously not one we can help the children earn during our Tuesday evening sessions at the football club (oh to be a Scout Group with our own ‘hut’, let alone one with a 25 metre swimming pool!). However, it is a badge than can be easily earned at home, especially as part of weekly swimming lessons or club activity.

From dipping your toe into the water to swimming 800+ metres, just like all our badges, there’s a starting level for everyone.

This term, Oscar A (Cubs) picked up his Stage 1 badge thanks to tracked progress at his weekly swimming lessons. Ava (Scouts) claimed her Stage 4 badge, having competed for Northampton Swimming Club, where she trains 6 times a week - including a 5am start in the pool on Friday mornings!

Ava will also be swimming at the County Championships, having now qualified in 8 race events.

They join Athena (Beavers), Toby (Cubs), and Alex C (Scouts) who each have their Stage 1 badge.

Jess (Cubs) is also one ‘long swim’ away from her Stage 1.

We are sure there are plenty of other young people in our ranks who do weekly swimming lessons and can claim the badge on OSM.

All hands to the pump.

16 of our Scout troop got a real feel for life as a firefighter last month as they joined Red, Blue, White and Green Watch for a Tuesday evening at Mereway Fire Station.

Mereway is one of the county’s busiest stations, involved in over 880 call outs each year. The educational trip out - organised by Scout Leader, Weasel (Rob) - was part of the troop’s mission to complete their Fire Safety badge in a full-on, real life practical way.

It proved to be a huge hit with the Scouts.

The group were given access all areas (apart from the station pole) to experience where the crew of 25 fire staff eat, sleep, get kitted out, train and relax whilst not on a call.

Split into smaller groups, the Scouts each got to undergo training drills in the station’s purpose built ‘fire tower’ training facility. Pitch black, simulating real life rescue in

a Tower Block and navigating narrow passageways, it needed, in every scouting spirit, a show of effort, endeavour and bravery.

The crew also gave the Scouts practical demonstrations in first aid, ventilation mask fitting and testing and equipment handling. The Watch’s cutting tools proved so heavy they took near 3 scouts to distribute the weight between them.

But sometimes, the best pleasures are the simple ones - and that was certainly the case when unwinding the hoses and when invited to

take a seat in the fire engine, which many of the Scouts said was the evening’s highlight.

The Scouts were also able to get involved with a Q&A and explored the Station’s one main rescue pump, a technical rescue vehicle, and boat rescue unit.

We’d like to thank the crew at Mereway Fire Station for a thoroughly worthwhile visit.

Fire Safety badges will soon be completed with a review of fire extinguishers, home safety and precaution back at the Football Club, in a standard Tuesday session.

Fully Invested.

“A whirlwind, but so much fun!”

That’s how Squirrels leader Rabbit has described the first 12 months of running Northamptonshire’s first ever Squirrels drey as it reaches it’s 1st birthday.

And having welcomed well over 40 new faces to 1st Roade, taken Squirrels as young as 4 years old on an overnight camp, and had the leaders recognised now as role models to inspire other dreys across Grafton District, that ‘whirlwind’, Rabbit talks so fondly of is certainly a great description.

November saw the 43rd new face join Squirrels, with others now sat on a waiting list, such is the demand locally.

Some have taken a different path away from Scouting, but 8 of the original, pioneering Squirrels have recently moved up to Beavers.

The weekly session remains busy, and loud. Oh so loud.

The Squirrels machine also continues to gather pace. 5 new Squirrels were invested last month, taking their first official steps on the scouting pathway which hopefully will inspire them for the next decade of adventure, at very least.

“It’s been amazing,” Rabbit adds.

“We wanted to be a group that didn't let age be a factor for them not to take part in true scouting. So far, we have earned 2 nights away and 2 hikes, plus also tackled caving and bouldering, as well as campfires.

“We have done litter picking in the local community and visited the hub in mk to learn about all the different emergency services.

“Back in the day, old scouters used to say Beavers could only play games and do crafts. Even with younger children, we have proved that’s not the case. We’ve only run a couple of craft sessions all year.”

After plenty of to-ing and fro-ing this time last year to get the drey off the ground, it’s hats off then to the leadership team of Rabbit, Raccoon, Wren, Falcon, Starling, Fawn, Robin and new volunteer recruit, Kestrel.

Happy 1st Birthday, Roade Squirrels.

Going global Our Scouts have recently completed their International Badge, in which the troop explored the culture and traditions of other countries around the globe.

It is a journey aimed at broadening horizons, tolerance and appreciation as they learn about different communities.

Typically, they take part in a traditional craft or creative activity from another country, and learn the basics of how to introduce yourself in another language, alongside a few everyday phrases.

In the spirit of our Scouts ‘going global’, BASECAMP thought we’d stick to the international traditions theme and look at some intriguing Christmas customs from across the world.

And we found some weird, and wacky stuff. Here are 8 of our favourite festivities.

Whilst we tuck into turkey with all the trimmings on Christmas Day, people in Japan are heading out for KFC! Ordering a KFC takeaway has become a big Christmas tradition in Japanese cities, preorders are made months in advance.

In Venezuala’s capital of Caracas, it is custom to let chidren roller skate or skateboard to church for Midnight Mass on Christmas eve, in a tradition known as Las Patinatas.

If you are Icelandic you know if you’re on the bad list in the run up to Christmas. Folklore says 13 mischievious Yule lads (gnomes) fill the shoes left out by chidren with rotting potatoes.

Just like stockings, filling shoes with little presents is custom in Germany, Holland and a lot of European nations.

Hide the broomsticks to ward off the drunk Christmas Eve witches and evil spirits. That’s a folklore tradition in Norway that is a little confused with Halloween.

In Ukraine, it is old custom to hang spider ornaments on your tree.

They also drape it in fake gold and silver spider webs that shimmer in the light. People believe it’s where the origin of tinsel came from.

Locals in Catalonia make a character out of a log, 'feeding' it fruit, nuts and sweets. On Christmas Eve, the family beats the log with sticks until it excretes all its treats.

Thought mince pies were weird; How about a plate of Christmas Caterpillars?

They are a festive delicacy in South Africa where they are flavoured with Christmas spices.

Since the 11th century, Swedish people have believed that a mansized goat accompanied Saint Nicholas to deliver presents. They have been building massive straw ‘yule goats’ as a community centrepiece ever since. They are as big as 40ft tall!

Check out the full programme

Rovers Return.

At 1st Roade, it’s not just our young people who get to enjoy memorymaking adventures and challenge themselves at camps. No, our volunteer leaders have the bug for exploration as well – and we encourage them to keep learning.

That’s why our very own Beavers leader Hedgehog (Charlie) will be venturing out to Scandinavia next summer, leading a patrol of 16-22 year old scouting explorers on a self guided exploration of Southern Norway. The voyage of discovery will end in a huge international jamboree basecamp at Stavanger, in the heart of Norway’s fjords.

Hedgehog and her 8-strong patrol will take on a 14 day challenge as part of a much wider, official youth group called Roverway 2024 ; North of the Ordinary.

The trip is self funded and is about pushing your limits, experiencing new cultures, sharing ideas, meeting international Scouts, self development and, of course, fun.

Previously held in Finland, Iceland, Italy, Portugal, France, and the Netherlands, Roverway happens every 3-6 years. I is one of the most popular Guide and Scout events in Europe, with approximately 5000 participants.

Help Hedgehog fundraise Hedgehog will have a selection of festive treats for our Squirrels, Beavers, Cubs and Scouts to purchase at our usual scouting session on 12 December. So please bring a little spare change.

From everyone at 1st Roade Scouts

BASECAMP

We’d like to celebrate all achievements of our young people, in and outside of Scouting.

Send any photos and details, and we’ll do our best to feature them in future editions of BASECAMP :

roade.chairman@hotmail.com roade.treasurer@hotmail.com