Meetings during the summer…
A while ago I had a conversation with a good friend of mine who is a Scout Leader in Slough. We discussed the pros and cons of meeting during the summer. As some of you know I also dabble in Guiding and have in the past run summer Brownies and Guides, giving girls on a waiting list a taster of what they could expect in meetings. We met for one day a week for each of the weeks of school summer holidays. It also encouraged new parents to volunteer and after one summer we had cleared the waiting list as we had enough volunteers to open two new units. I had never thought about running Cub meetings during the school holidays before but ‘Mr C’ gave me food for thought.
During the summer holidays this year the Cubs have had the opportunity to attend WOW at WINGS, backwoods cook at Earlywood and splash in the Thames at the Waterside activity centre.
Last Tuesday (12th August) 29 Cubs and 6 Adults descended on Earlywood campsite to backwards cook. Backwoods cooking is a way of cooking over the embers of a fire without utensils, traditionally in the ‘backwoods’. In April this year the Scout Association introduced exciting new badges for it young members. Backwoods cooking is one of the Cubs new badges and the Cubs have to: Demonstrate how to light a fire; help prepare a fire for cooking on; cook something using a billy can; cook something in the embers of a fire; cook something on a stick; show how to make the fire safe when it is finished with, including extinguishing the fire and making the area where it was safe. The Cubs spent a while collecting firewood, learning the difference between old wood and green wood (we had some very smoky fires from the green wood), how to organise a woodpile and that they needed more than the three sticks they collected at first.
The Cubs cooked noodles in a Billy can, hot dogs on sticks, s’mores (marshmallows toasted sandwiched between chocolate digestives), fairy cakes in orange skins and stuffed tomatoes. The steepest learning curve was in the cleaning and clearing up. With the advent of the dishwasher, Cubs have little understanding on how to wash and wipe up, using the tea towel to wash up with left one group with the dilemma on how to dry up. Note to self, play a washing up game next term, maybe the Cubs would like to complete their home help badge!
The Cubs were very impatient and cooking hotdogs on a stick, I was being asked after 30 seconds if the hot dog was cooked and I’m pretty sure that more than one of the Cubs had a cold hot dog to eat. Everyone had an enjoyable, if smoky day, the Cubs liked the s’mores the best and lighting the fire, they didn’t like collecting wood, water or cleaning up. They enjoyed their day outside in the woods and seemed exhausted in the closing circle when hardly any of them could stand up.
On Tuesday 19th August inspired by another new badge ‘time on the water’ a staged cross sectional badge. The Cubs went to the Wokingham Waterside Centre. In the Morning the Cubs katakanued (this is like a mini catamaran powered by the paddles of six Cubs) to Caversham Lock and back to the Waterside Centre, with a stop at the park with singing and laughing all the way. The Leaders took a leisurely stroll up the tow path catching glimpses of the Cubs now and again but always being able to hear them!
The Cubs returned for lunch some a little damp, very hungry and a little bit worn out. The Waterside Centre has a lovely function room we used for lunch and everyone sat and ate together. After Lunch the Cubs were raring to go and after being fitted in their buoyancy aids again were off on the river, this time in kayaks. This took a little bit more concentration to get the hang of and being as each Cub was on their own they had to work hard. The instructors were superb, stopped some Cubs drifting off to London and rescued others when they lost their paddles; the Cubs really took to this watersport and had lots of fun. The morning session on the katakanu had really built up the Cubs confidence on the water. After all working together to put the kayaks away the Cubs were led to some rope some barrels and planks of wood, Rafting.
The Cubs were split into two teams but worked on one raft. They built the raft and tied the ropes tight (with a little bit of adult help). One team got on and paddled downstream and paddled from the pontoon to the finish, 2 minutes 55 seconds. The second team had to paddle up stream; this team had the older Cubs but within seconds was in trouble, one of the knots had started to loosen, one Cub fell in and others followed. They still managed the paddle on the raft in just over 3 minutes.
I thought the day was over with only a few very wet Cubs but under the supervision of the Waterside Centre staff the Cubs that wanted to run off the end of the pontoon and jump in could. Lots of very wet Cubs herded into the showers and almost all presentable before their parents picked them up.
Next summer looks extremely busy for Cubs so maybe some extra meeting towards the end of the holidays when everyone has recovered from the group camp, 25th July to 1st of August 2015.
By Rama