Issue 130 Issue 1302018 Oct—Dec Oct—Dec 2018
From the Courtyard
From the Courtyard SAC SCOUTS NEWSLETTER
After a brief newsletter hiatus, our GSL is back—and we couldn’t be happier! Here’s what we he’s got to say.
In this issue Cubs - Let’s Get Moving! - Halloween Party - Kent Cuboree— Photos - Reverse Advent Calender
Scouts - Time to Think
Rovers - In a Knot - Hiking in the Highlands—Photos - Giving it a shot - LAN Party
Announcements
October The month of October tends to kick start a new level of enthusiasm in our Sections. The weather helps too. Outdoor events become more interesting with the cooler weather and hiking and cook outs are more pleasant. Each section sets out its own plans and during October a number of activities have been organised which I am sure you will read about in the next few pages. The leaders as usual are busy planning sectional events and Group activities. Sectional leader meetings and Leaders’ Council meetings are held to ensure things are done properly and coordinated well. Leaders also are heavily involved in meetings at IHQ level for various reasons, be it training and updates on issues and initiatives effecting our operations. A number of our leaders have achieved certain levels of leadership appointments in October and others have started their path to leadership recognition – the Wood badge. This has become a three year process and leaders have to show a lot of commitment and determination to get it done. This comes at a personal cost and sacrifice for our Group volunteers. Doing this work must come from the heart as sometimes it can be a very thankless ‘job’.
New members, moving on and retaining the older ones. During the month of October our Group welcomed a number of new members who joined the Pack and Troop respectively. October tends to be an ‘intake’ month since many members would have started school at College. We would like to welcome all members to the Group and augur that they will enjoy their scouting life no matter how long it may be. New blood sees older blood move on to the next section and this culminates during the going-up ceremony which this year shall be held on November 7th. At the moment our Group has one hundred and thirty members and a sign that our Group is strong and healthy is the larger numbers we are managing to retain in the Unit and Crew. This means we are providing a purpose for them to stick with us during the difficult academic times of their lives. One must not however think that this retention rate and strength in the Group is a recent fact. I happened to be going through some electronic documents on my pc in recent days and went back ten years to 2008 and happened to come across two pictures (below) which show that even in those days we were doing really well. One may call them a blast from the past. The first pic shows the rover crew in 2008 that took part in the Rover Crew Challenge with other local Rover Crews – we had placed 1st, 2nd and 3rd. A great all round performance. Six of the Rovers in the picture are still part of the Group and have been going strong ever since. From the Venture Unit winning team pictured below in 2008, I am proud to say that five out of seven are still fully active members of the Group.
From the Courtyard
GSL’S CONTRIBUTION
Issue 130 Oct—Dec 2018
GSL’s Note
It is indeed a pity that these competitions are no longer organised by IHQ.
National Rover Challenge 2008 – placed 1st, 2nd and 3rd. Back row: Ian Meli, Andrew Agius, Kyle Mangion, Jeremy Darmenia, Front row: Edward Sciberras, Andrew Cutajar, Timmy Zammit, Mark P Borg, Andre Brincat.
Venture Unit Reynold’s Cup Winners - 2008 Left to Right: Andrew Agius, Luca Tufigno, Gabriel Rizzo, George Zammit Montebello, Bernard Maniscalco, Nathan Gatt, Isaac Schembri, GSL Edward Cassola, VSL Mark P Borg.
Edward Cassola Group Scout Leader
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From the Courtyard
LETS GET MOVING!
Issue 130 Oct—Dec 2018
We decided to change things up in October and in fact one of our weekly meetings was done a little differently to the rest. Instead of us leaders doing the meeting as usual, it was held by Mr Daniel Mifsud, a UOM Student who is currently undertaking his Bachelor of Science (Hons) in Sports and Physical Activity Degree. Together they discussed the importance of leading a healthy and active lifestyle and how this can be achieved. They came up with 4 important things which we need to do on a daily basis in order to keep
From the Pack
healthy. These are:
Eating Healthy,
Drinking Healthy,
Exercising Regularly,
Sleeping well.
After a very short lecture on the 4 points mentioned above (in which, I must point out, they were more attentive than usual), Daniel then had a number of games and activities prepared for them in the car park. These games and activities served as great ice breakers for new cubs to get to know the older members of the pack and vice versa. They had to work in teams and also discuss and use their heads in Daniel Mifsud explains a game during the meeting
order to win the games set out for them.
All in all, we all had a superb time working together in an active and fun way. Thank you Daniel for dedicating some of your time to teaching and helping our cubs learn and grow. We sure had a great time! Nicole Mifsud Hathi
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Uncertain where to place his cone, Akela awaits instruction.
From the Courtyard
HALLOWEEN PARTY
Issue 130 Oct—Dec 2018
For this year’s Halloween the cub leaders thought they’d do away with the traditional game based Halloween party and focus more on spooky tasks. On Tuesday 30 October, SAC Cub Leaders met to set up the party area for the Halloween party the following day. Cobwebs were strung, and generally creepy décor was placed all around the troop room. The two experiemnet based activity stations were placed here with an additional two food based activity stations set up in the cub room. Party day arrived and the cubs arrived in their pre-agreed black clothing. Our ghastly ghouls were split into four groups and the fun began! Our Slime station, manned by Kaa had the cubs concocting ooey gooey slime by mixing some every day chemicals
From the Pack
together. Science and a little bit of elbow grease resulted in some seriously slimey stuff, right out of your nightmares! Next up was the potion station presided over by Baloo. By mixing oil, water and food colouring, the cubs were able to make magic potions which could have jumped right out of a Harry Potter film! The most squeamish station was our edible poo station! Made of golden syrup, crushed biscuits and dried fruit these dubiously
delectable
treats
were
nothing
short
of
scrummy...once you got past the initial hesitation. We were made amply aware that the more proper parents among you disproved of this activity entirely but don't’ worry—we made sure to let the cubs know that this is not something the should do at home! Finally came our food station where cubs made themselves sausages wrapped in pastry to make yummy Egyptian Mummies. When everyone had visited all the stations, it was time to party with DJ Kaa...but not before our cubs were turned into spooky skeletons with the help of some glow sticks. Glow sticks in place, our skeletons enjoyed munchin on some party snacks and Halloween sweets while dancing along to tunes such as ‘Thriller’. All in all, our cubs has a great time and the leaders are looking forward to making next year’s party bigger
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HALLOWEEN PARTY
Issue 130 Oct—Dec 2018
From the Pack
and better...perhaps with less edible poo this time!
Halloween skeletons dancing the meeting away!
Emma Gauci Bagheera
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From the Pack
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KENT—IN PHOTOS!
Issue 130 Oct—Dec 2018
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KENT—IN PHOTOS!
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KENT—IN PHOTOS!
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KENT—IN PHOTOS!
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KENT CUBOREE 2018—IN PHOTOS!
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REVERSE ADVENT CALENDAR
Issue 130 Oct—Dec 2018
Following last year’s success, the SAC pack decided to take up the reverse advent calendar for
From the Pack
the month of December.
The reverse advent calendar is an initiative set up by the Foodbank Lifeline foundation to help boost donations to the food bank. The Foodbank lifeline foundation provides short term assistance in the form of emergency food packs consisting of non-perishable food items to individuals or families who are struggling to support themselves. These individuals are generally referred to the foodbank via a social serivices agency such as Appogg, Caritas, or via various parishes etc… The foundation can help between 30—80 families per week, which is quite a feat for a volunteer based organization! Having seen the success of our first attempt, SAC cubs decided to invite the entire group to participate in this year’s collection. The initiative works by following the advent calendar style list published by the foodbank itself. Our boys were asked to bring particular items from this list throughout the month of December and these were then assembled into boxes during the last meeting of the year. Following the lists published by the food bank ensures that they are always able to produce and distribute nutritionally well balanced packs. Reverend Kim Hurst also came to talk to the boys about the food bank and it’s importance. She explained that it helps family’s who are not only poor but who might need some extra help some months during the year who, for example may have a sick relative and are therefore in desperate need of money for
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REVERSE ADVENT CALENDAR
Issue 130 Oct—Dec 2018
treatment. She also explained that even though donations are very high during Christmas time, these do not last the whole year and the Foodbank runs low on supplies again towards the middle of the year. This made us think that we should have another collection around summer time! Until then, we’re proud to say that we managed to put together a mega 15 boxes of food stuffs which the cubs decorated with gusto! The Foodbank Lifeline Foundation may be contacted via their website. Donations may also be dropped off year round at: Foodbank Lifeline Fundation Malta, 210, Old Bakery Street, Valletta.
From the Pack
Thank you to all our members and their parents for contributing to this wonderful initiative!
Nicole & Emma Hathi & Bagheera
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From the Courtyard
TIME TO THINK
Issue 130 Oct—Dec 2018
October has been a relatively quiet month for the Troop, with regards to larger activities, however, there has been a lot of behind the scenes preparation for Operation Bulwark Shield, the most prestigious event on the Troop’s calendar that attracted participants not only from the Troop, but from the Unit and the Rovers as well. You’ll be able to read about this in the November edition of our newsletter! It’s time for a few changes now, in the Troop. A number of our senior members have reached the age where they’ll be transitioning into the Venture Unit. By the time you read this, most likely the Going Up ceremony will have been completed and our Troop section would have let go of our most senior members, and have started training their replacements since most of the senior members hold leadership positions within the Troop as Patrol Leaders (PLs) and Assistant Patrol leaders (APLs). We certainly hope that their journey with us has been a fulfilling and enriching experience, and that they will continue to be part of the SAC Scout family as active members in the Venture Unit. Exciting times lie ahead for the Troop, as the new PLs and APLs get to grips with what it takes to be in charge of a group of youngsters for the
From the Troop
day to day (or more accurately Wednesday to Wednesday), running of a patrol. As part of the Scout Method, we place great emphasis on the Patrol System, which encourages our young members to work together to achieve common goals and share a sense of achievement when things go well, as well as recognise the collective responsibility that comes when working in a group. Whilst it is understandable that some of the more experienced members might feel tempted to do everything on their own, in order to be faster and ‘win’ at whatever task has been set, Scouting emphasises teamwork, and we encourage our senior members to use their skills to teach and support, rather than try to be a one man show. At the end of the day, winning a simple activity like a Knot Race might be fun, but it carries little long term value if it was one or two experienced scouts doing everything, whilst the rest of the patrol stare and chat idly. Future plans involve also the implementation of a revised badge system, which should be coming into force in 2019. After a little tweaking here and there following feedback from various Scout Groups, the Scout Association of Malta are set to release an updated version of the recent Mastery Badges, that will make the program more attractive to our young members. We’ll be working on a planner for the year 2019, that will have indicative dates for the year’s events. One particular item of interest though, is for the year 2020. This year, in 2018, the Scout Association of Malta hosted an international camp (Jamboree) in August. There we learnt of the upcoming Eurojam 2020, which is am EU - wide jamboree that is going to be held in Poland. More information will be distributed soon as we are interested in joining the Maltese contingent with a few of our members. You can update yourselves on the event here! https://ej2020.org/
Andrew Agius ASL Troop
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From the Courtyard
ROVER HIKE
Issue 130 Oct—Dec 2018
The Rover hike was the first introductory joint activity between the Rovers and the older Ventures who were soon to join the Crew. Other than serving as an ice breaker, the activity introduced the 3 participating ventures to the 6 rovers attending the activity and vice versa and allowed for them to begin to get to know each other.
From the Crew
We met at 09:00 am sharp at San Anton school. The weather was somewhat cloudy, with grey skies above us and rain seemingly looking to break at any minute. There was a slight breeze and the temperature was cool. If the weather held, it would be perfect for our hike, and so it did.
We embarked on our adventure at 09:30 am, heading back up towards the main road and in towards Dwejra. We decided to take a slightly harder but more adventurous route around Dwejra, walking along the outer edge of the ditch. The view along the journey was spectacular, with visibility as far as the eye can see. Our route took us over the Victoria lines and along the lush fields below Tas-Santi cliffs. We soon reached Mgarr and began to make our way down towards Golden Bay, where we then had a rest and refueled over lunch together with a sea view. The joint hike was enjoyed by all who attended, including our German Shepherd companion, and was a success at breaking the new Rovers into the Crew, marking the beginning of a new chapter in their scouting experience.
Nigel Grech New Rover Unit Member
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From the Courtyard
IN A KNOT
Issue 130 Oct—Dec 2018
Pierre Sant was in charge of getting the Rovers’ minds...and fingers‌ in a knot of the October Monthly activity. Following the Wednesday meeting on the 17th October, Rovers took part in a knot tying activity. In this activity, the members has been given rather thin rope of three different colours and worked to re-create different notes to put on display, often at times using a knot instruction book and online tutorials to construct the knots at as high a quality as possible. In the activity, the section had recreated several different knots, among which included basics such as the reef knot, to more complex such as the clove hitch, and some which were specialized knots, an example being a noose. These knots were then cut off from the main rope we were supplied with via Pierre Sant, the ends burned to prevent unraveling, and then glued to the display case we had prepared beforehand.
From the Crew
This activity proved a success with the members, also seeing to the Rover scouts practicing their knot skills, members often redoing their knot to ensure its quality.
Andrew Zammit Montebello Rover
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From the Crew
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HIKING IN THE HIGHLANDS—IN PHOTOS!
Issue 130 Oct—Dec 2018
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HIKING IN THE HIGHLANDS—IN PHOTOS!
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HIKING IN THE HIGHLANDS—IN PHOTOS!
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HIKING IN THE HIGHLANDS—IN PHOTOS!
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GIVING IT A SHOT
Issue 130 Oct—Dec 2018
Our Rovers like guns...so they didn’t need much convincing to participate in a charity event in aid of the Malta Community Chest fund. On the 15th of December 2018, the Saint Aloysius
College Rovers, went
to take part in the Police shooting marathon in
aid of The Malta
Community Chest Fund The planned meeting time was 09:30 and we
proceeded towards
the shooting area at 10:00. The shooting range is
in a small quarry with
it’s sides lined with old tires and the target end of
the range has a pile
of dirt. These features are set up to prevent the
bullet ricocheting off
the walls or spewing chips back towards the
shooters.
Registration involved us signing off our name and
presenting our ID
card, giving the participation fee and purchasing
the ammo. We were
then given two small papers that we had to present to the personnel that would be
From the Crew
giving us our equipment and ammo. The Gentlefolk that were taking care of us (police men) even offered us food items, which was needlessly generous of them. The Equipment provided was a Glock 17 9mm pistol, a box of 50 rounds, a pair of shooting ear muffs and a personal trainer to make sure we didn’t do anything ..painful. Our Brave instructors showed us the basics of how to hold a pistol, load the magazine, and aim with some resemblance to accuracy. After everyone’s rounds were expended and Only after, the used shells were picked up and placed in a box provided for us.
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From the Courtyard
GIVING IT A SHOT
Issue 130 Oct—Dec 2018
The members present were Emanuel Lewis, Adam Vella Cardona, Jonathan Pace, Nigel Grech, Lorin Grima, Edward Apap Bologna, Daniel Busuttil David Pace and Simon Gauci. While our results varied, due to our range of experience, we enjoyed this charity event whole heartedly and would like to thank the Maltese Police Force for organising this public event. The staff was extremely friendly and
From the Crew
professional.
Simon Gauci Rover
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From the Courtyard
LAN PARTY
Issue 130 Oct—Dec 2018
Once a year, our Rover crew convenes for the second most anticipated event on their social, scouting-related calendar. The event is generally well attedended and brings out the gaming nerd in each and every one of our members. Emanuel Lewis (defeated by none, feared by all) has regaled us with a blow by blow account of this year’s event. This is being written live. During the event I don’t think this has ever been done before. I mean, having the newsletter article being written during the
From the Crew
event itself! (Note from the editor—I confirm, this is a one off, unprecedented occurrence!)
So it’s Saturday 01st December… Christmas month, and this year Rover LAN party month! For those who do not know, a LAN party is an event where participants bring their computers, connect to a network and play multiplayer games This has been done annually for a number of years now! And is one of the most enjoyed events of the year! As usual we’re playing shoot-em-ups. We started off with Call of Duty 2, dare I say, a classic. This is a firstperson world war 2 game. Playing game such as capture the flag, where teamwork is required to complete the objective. 3pm: started playing Call of Duty 2. A few warm up games (free-for-all) 6pm: we switched to Call of Duty 4, a first-person game; based on modern warfare. Vert fast paced. Got to go in fact. Gotta play and rack up some points. 7pm: the weather outside is frightful. Lighting strikes every few seconds and pouring rain. We keep playing, most oblivious to the conditions outside. 9:30pm: Circuit breaker tripped sending us into complete darkness and switching off our server, so a great
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From the Courtyard
Issue 130 Oct—Dec 2018
LAN PARTY
competitive game of capture the flag was interrupted. (Good, cause my team was losing) 9.31pm: praying my PC is still in one piece 9.32pm: Thank God it still is. All good! 9:35pm: NEWS FROM THE FRONT LINES!!! PIZZA IS INCOMING. Weapons were put away and replaced by forks and knives. 10:30pm: We continued to play COD2 focusing much more on team games. This time we focused on search and destroy, where one of the teams must seek one of two artillery sites and plant a bomb. Once
From the Crew
(if) planted, the other team has 1 minute to diffuse said bomb. This was particularly fun as teams were very balanced and this round went down to the wire. Sunday 2nd December 09:45am: Back at it. Last night was great, today will be intense. A whole day of, well, the above. Playing mostly call of duty 2 now. Everyone seems to prefer this one. And to be honest I agree. A Classic of a game. Requiring teamwork, co-ordination and communication to succeed. Same as Call of duty 4, but that one is much more fast paced! 01:00pm: a few of us tried our hand at racing playing Need for speed – Most wanted. Fun. Fast. Exciting! Who would have thought going around a bend at 200km/hr was possible!
4:00pm: It’s Over! A truce has been called and the battlefield clean-up commenced.
Same as previous LAN Parties held, heads got hot, friendships were on the line and laughs were had, but all was good in the end. Everyone who participated enjoyed the time we had together.
Emanuel Lewis Rover
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From the Courtyard
ANNOUNCEMENTS
Issue 130 Oct—Dec 2018
ANNOUNCEMENTS On the 24th October 2018, SAC Rovers held the now infamous Burger Sale. Thank you for treating yourself to a burger!
A fundraiser in aid of Hospice Malta was held at SAC Scouts HQ on the 24th October 2018. This fundraiser consisted of a burger sale which replaced the regular hot dog sale by the Rovers. Response by members and their parents was fantastic. In fact, all burgers were sold out! A donation of EUR250 has been passed on to Hospice Malta following this initiative.
Announcements
Whilst congratulating the Leaders, Rovers and Ventures on a job well done, we thank you for supporting us in this activity.
Timmy Zammit AGSL
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