August 2017
t c a t n o C n i t u o c S
d a e h n e k r i B g in
Firstly, let me say hello in my new role as Chair of the District Executive. My first focus is to help fund raise for the 15, yes 15 Scouters from Birkenhead who are lucky enough to be part of a county-run trip to Nepal in Spring 2018. We comprise 10 Explorers from both Wizard and Viking Units and five leaders. We are fundraising with Explorers and leaders from West Wirral, Bebington and Wallasey who are also part of the trip. It’s great fun getting to know scouting colleagues from across the Wirral whilst we attempt to raise up to £30,000! We have already sold lots of cakes and sweets, packed bags in supermarkets, picked up litter at Tranmere Rovers and written many funding applications. Hopefully you will all know about our charity shop which opens in Liscard on Friday 11th of August and remains open for a week so do pop-in to our pop-up shop and say hi! So far we have raised over £3,000 which is great and would love your help to do more. If you want to donate a couple of pounds or can suggest a fundraising project do get in touch.
Pop Up Charity Shop Raising funds to send Explorers and leaders from Wirral to Nepal on a charity trek in March 2018 Please pop in and see us at: 29 Seaview Road, Liscard. CH45 4QN Selling clothes, accessories, bric-a-brac, books and much more... I look forward to meeting many of you in the weeks and months ahead. Alison Alison Lee - District Chair - Birkenhead Scouts alison.lee@birkenheadscouts.org.uk
Please send your group news and photos to: SMO-MediaTeam@birkenheadscouts.org.uk by 24th September for inclusion in October’s edition
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Hello and thank you for 2
reading the
August edition of
District Chair
Contact.
Nepal Charity Shop opening soon!
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The DC
This month we have news from across our groups with lots of pictures particularly from the Cubs section.
News from our District Commissioner
5 265th go Den Building!
Cubs and Beavers in Royden Park
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A week in the Life
With our ADC Scouts Matt Proctor
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Our District AGM
8 Archery An update from our
District team
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Cubs Update
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News from packs around the District
Bear’s Grill
Another tasty treat!
Contact
There have been changes to our District Commissioners team and we have a new District Chair. More about this in the DC’s Ramblings. Our house is looking like a jumble sale at the minute! The Nepal fundraising team are due to open up their pop-up Charity Shop in Liscard on the 11th August. I’m sure you’ll support them if you can. There’s more info on p2. Busy times! My son and I will be on our way to Swansea this weekend with the Viking Unit and are looking forward to another action packed week. Explorers and leaders will be taking part in activities such as gorge walking and surfing. They’ll be spending some time sleeping out and cooking for
themselves. You’ll be able to read all about it in our next issue. Just before we get back my daughter will be on her way to Snowdonia with her Scout Troop for their camp. I’m sure you’ll be reading about that in the next issue too! Our recently new feature following the week in the life of one of our Scouters continues and this month features ADC Scouts Matt Proctor who is currently in Iceland on another Scouting adventure. We’re looking forward to hearing about his travels. Please continue to send in stories and pictures of what you and your groups are getting up to. Particularly if you are away on camp this summer. Paul Ellis
is published by
Birkenhead District Scout Council 15 Balls Road, Oxton, Wirral CH43 5RF Compiled by : Paul Ellis Tel: 07720 555885 paul.ellis @birkenheadscouts.org.uk Please email content to : SMO-MediaTeam@ birkenheadscouts.org.uk
Please send your group news and photos to: SMO-MediaTeam@ birkenheadscouts.org.uk by 24th September for inclusion in October’s edition
... s g n i l b m a R ’s C The D Well… Contact time has come around again! The last couple of months have been really busy – we had challenge camp which was featured briefly in the last edition and the weekend after we went on District Cub Camp to Forest Camp where more than 40 Cubs and their leaders spent the weekend having fun and achieving lots of badges. Thanks to everyone who helped make this happen I am sure this will become a regular feature in our District calendar. The 64th Birkenhead have had their Royal Navy inspection and I am glad to report that they passed with flying colours and so they retained their RN recognition! Congratulations to all the leaders & Scouts for making the grade! We attended the Kings Church fun day with the 2nd Birkenhead where we were able to recruit seven young people! We are really keen to start attending more community fun days so if anyone hears of any please do let us know. The County Commissioner interviews were held recently, Joan and I were both on the interview panel and I am happy to announce that Peter Oliver has been appointed as Alan’s successor – our congratulations go to Peter and we wish him all the best in his new role. Foxfield School group have held their investitures where all the young people and adult volunteers were invested. Congratulations to all our new members! We held our AGM and Celebration of Success night where more than 1000 hours of long service awards were ready to present. We have had some really great feedback so next year we will be on the hunt for an even larger venue! If you weren’t there and were due a service award we will be coming around to groups to present them. Matt Proctor and I had the pleasure of joining 25th Birkenhead Scouts at Red Rocks with some Chinese exchange students recently. They played some games on the beach and had a BBQ before they went on their journey back to China. It was a lovely night and the weather was perfect. Our Explorers had their annual challenge night with some great help from across the District! It looked like lots of fun, our Network
section have continued to meet every other week and are achieving their own Everyday Adventure! I went along to 64th Birkenhead and presented seven, yes seven, Chief Scout Bronze Awards to some Beavers there! As well as investing two new Beavers and lots of challenge awards were presented! Finally, I am sure by now you will have all heard the news that Jordan has decided to step down from his role as joint District Commissioner from 31st July. After talking with Peter Oliver it has been decided that I will continue as sole District Commissioner with continuing support from PJ and Vicki as Deputies. I would like to thank Jordan for all that he has done for Birkenhead over the last five months. He is returning to 2nd Thingwall as ASL and going to support the district team as District Centre Manager assisting with the development of HQ, District Quartermaster and looking after logistics for our district events – more info about Jordan’s new role will come out in the next edition of Contact! I hope everyone going on summer camp has a great time, and that everyone has a peaceful and restful summer break before September. Matt Jones District Commissioner
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Den Building with the 265th Cubs and Beavers at Royden Park
... e f i l e h t n i k A wee A week in the life of....
Matt Proctor Role – Assistant District Commissioner (Scouts) Real Job – Hotel Concierge Monday – Today for most people is the start of the week, but for me is was my sixth day in work. This week is set to be a busy one in the hotel with a lot of VIP arrivals ready for The Open. Being a concierge means I’m always busy making sure our guests have a 5* stay! Finished today at 5:30, rushed home for some dinner, into my Scout uniform and off to the AGM at the 265th Birkenhead. Straight from here to District HQ for another meeting, this one planning an exciting event between the four Wirral Districts! Tuesday – Back in work again, lots of golf bags to deliver to the rooms today, but plenty of new guests to talk to and help out. Finished work at 6:30, and again rushed home to get ready for tonight’s meeting! Arrived at DHQ for 7:30 for the District Operations Team meet up. Sharing what we’ve been up to and what we have planned in the future. Wednesday – Early shift today so up at 5:45 and in work for 6:45. Very busy day, delivering various VIP gifts, drinks, and luggage to rooms as well as building our own putting green! Didn’t get chance to take my lunch break and then my plan of leaving early was halted when my colleague was caught in a car accident. I couldn’t break my promise to ‘help other people’ so ended up on the side of the road with them till after 5, luckily no injuries occurred! I was glad that day had fallen on my ‘Scouting day off’ so that night called for the pub! Thursday – Day nine in work, but last day before my holiday starts! Up early and in for 6:45 again, mostly a repeat of yesterday, refilling gifts, greeting guests, and today sinking a few on our finished green! Finished at 3:30 so I had time to relax before Scouts! Helped out at the 265th who were completing their cooking badge after planning their menus the week before. Some unusual dishes, but all in all a lot of fun and a lot of washing up!
Friday – Holidays have started! Now to start the shopping for the World Scout Moot in Iceland, leaving it till three days before wasn’t one of my best choices, but I managed to box most of it off before 5. Then off to camp at Sandiways with the 25th and 265th Scouts and even managed to bump into the 64th Beavers enjoying a weekend of activities! The heavy rain didn’t manage to dampen our spirits, and we were all set up for the weekend! Saturday – Amazing night’s sleep with the rain battering the tent, one of my favourite noises (once I’m inside, dry and cosy!) Amazing mixture of back to basics, fun and adventurous activities for all the Scouts today. Incredible to see two of our groups mixing together, making new friends and having fun. Leaving everyone behind in the afternoon to head to see my family before I leave for Iceland! Sunday – The big pack! Lost count of how many times and in so many different ways everything went in to and back out of my rucksack. But eventually I was done! Finishing the week off with a nice meal with friends, and some card games, turns out Matt Jones is the Old Maid! Exciting few weeks to come at the Moot in Iceland! See you all soon! If you would like to be featured next time, please email Matt.jones@birkenheadscouts.org.uk
Birkenhead District AGM District Chair Joan Quaile hands over the position to Alison Lee. We’d like to thank Joan for her hard work and wish Alison well in her new role. Birkenhead Gang Show was awarded the Paul Qualie Trophy at the AGM which was held in the Baden Powell room at the YMCA.
Hi all! I’m glad to be bringing back Network to Birkenhead after a few years and making it a fully active section. In the past couple of months we’ve had an archery night, made soda can popcorn makers and most recently an ultimate frisbee night ran by one of the group. Over the coming months I have a lot planned for Network nights these include movie nights, climbing, Flip Out in Chester and even a kayaking trip. I also am hoping that we can participate in this years Mersey Moot Ben Attwood
Cub Camp! Hi all. Since my last piece in contact we have been away to Cub camp. We had over 40 Cubs out for the weekend and fun was had by all Cubs and Leaders who attended. Our next Cub Leaders meeting is the 18th of September. Have a lovely summer. Emma Fairclough ADC Cubs
Townfield Primary School are internationally linked with the Stephen Chu school in Taicang near Shanghai. Josh Gregory, Joel Radley & Ethan Risk had the fantastic opportunity of visiting their school through Access China UK in October 2016. On 13th July the Chinese students visited various schools on the Wirral. Josh, Joel & Ethan hosted three Chinese students and a teacher each for dinner at their homes. They were able to invite them to the 25th Birkenhead Scouts end of term beach BBQ where they played rounders & cricket. The leaders presented them with neckers & badges which were similar to their school uniform neckerchiefs! The Chinese students thoroughly enjoyed this evening as they had never experienced scouting before.
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2nd Thingwall Cub Camp! 2nd Thingwall Cubs visited Coxwood Scout Camp on the weekend of 23-25th June.
They took part in crate stacking, rifle shooting, abseiling, climbing, go carts to name but a few. We had excellent weather and were able to enjoy a mass water fight on the Saturday afternoon! 2nd Thingwall Cubs have had a busy year, camp in the Lake District, visit to the fire station, district Camp and Coxwood Camp.
Can you believe the new Archery Team is already seven months old! We have been running archery sessions every month since January. We’ve welcomed Beavers, Cubs, Scouts and both of our Explorer units. We had a fun session when we hosted the re-launch of Birkenhead Network, who were more enthusiastic about the balloon shooting than any of the younger sections. We ran archery sessions at the Beaver Fun Day and the District Cub Camp, helping young people to achieve their Challenge badges. We were also delighted to have the new Scout Troop at Foxfield School come along
on their first scouting event away from their normal meeting place. We would like to thank the members of Bebington Archers who have helped out at the Friday sessions, ensuring that everyone receives one to one coaching. We would particularly like to thank Lee Padmore for his support and advice regarding equipment and coaching as well as his attendance at all our events so far. We’re really looking forward to the next sessions. The balloons are bought. The dates will be published on the Birkenhead District Page and in the next issue of Contact.
Spotlight on...
ophy r T n o t t a H e Th Les Hatton was a leader with the 25th Birkenhead for many years, eventually becoming GSL. He worked tirelessly to obtain the then waste land on Beresford Road, at which a Scout Hut had once stood. At the time the 25th were meeting in the cellar of the old District HQ at Harding House, Park Road West. He then managed to secure several grants to help turn the Beresford Road site back into a Scout meeting hall, which allowed the group to move in November 1976. Sadly, in May of 1977 Les suddenly passed away, just 6 months before the official opening of the hall in November of the same year. After all the hard work Les had done, the building was named Hatton Hall, dedicated to him.
The Hatton family donated a silver cup, The Hatton Trophy, to be awarded to the group within the Scout section, that was most deserving. Les would have been happy to award the trophy to any group that stayed true to the Scouting aims. In 2012 The Hatton Trophy was awarded to the Scout troop that attended, competed and won the most competitions across District and County events each year. This trophy now sits as the highest award that can be achieved within
the Birkenhead Scout Section. It truly recognises the hard work our young people, and adult volunteers put in year after year to achieve such an award. It gave me great pleasure this year to be able to announce that the Hatton Trophy would be heading home to 25th Birkenhead! Your hard work and determination over the year is incredible! The award runs from and to Challenge Camp each year so there is still plenty of time to compete to win the Hatton Trophy for 2018, good luck to all!
Since our last issue, the Scout section has taken part in the fishing competition. We had a great turn out of 18 Scouts who all had a great time! The team from the Thornton Hough Angling Club (THAC) were more than impressed with the amount of fish caught! We think we must have set a new high score for the weigh in, lets beat that next year by sending as many of your Scouts as possible! As always thanks to Graham Lysaght for organising and running the competition! Thanks also go to THAC for their continued support, guidance and patience, and of course to Simon Richards and his team from the SASU for providing the catering! All in all a very successful night! County’s new event Tawd25 is still open with spaces to be filled, please let me know if you want to book on or need any more information! We are currently working out dates for the golf and bowling competitions, which will be put out to you asap! With summer almost upon us and our quietest time for Scouting, please invite me to any camps, events, troop nights and AGMs that you have coming up, I will be scheduling visits to all the troops from September! As always please contact me with any other questions, issues or fun facts you have for me! I’m always available for a chat! Matt Proctor- ADC Scouts
Bear’s Grill Corned Beef hash Boil potatoes, then mash with tin of corn beef. Then fry chopped onion in same pan. Mix into the potato and cornbeef. Make into little patties and allow to cool. Then when needed, reheat in fry pan to give nice crisp edges and serve with tinned beans. All can be done in one pan so less washing up too! I have never tried packet ‘smash’ but I guess you could make this with dried mash and even dried onions to avoid needing ‘fresh’ ingredients. Or use ASDA’s mash with onions! Perfect for camp! Bon Appetit Will Redfearn