Gerry Connolly RIP
We begin this news letter with some sad news. Gerry Connolly, one of our leaders from the 1970’s and 1980’s passed away this week. Gerry’s husband Terry was our group leader for many years and both were instrumental in the building of our Den in Hyde Park. Many past members will recall Gerry with great fondness, she was full of energy and always had a smile and seemed to know exactly what words of encouragement or support a scout (or leader!) needed.
Funeral Mass will be held on Saturday 1st February in the Church of the Assumption, Dalkey at 10am.
Annual General Meeting
Our AGM will be held on Tuesday 4th February in Our Lady’s Hall in Dalkey at 7.30pm.
This is a great opportunity to hear about what all our sections are doing, and to chat to other parents and leaders over a cup of tea or coffee.
We have some formal bits to take care of but we promise to keep those to a minimum!
We hope to see you there!
Training and Volunteering
We’d like to welcome Brian, Dave and Brendan who have recently completed the ‘Being a Scouter’ training and join our Beaver Section.
We can always do with more help running the group. Even if you don’t have the time to attend weekly meetings you can help with our Parents and Friends group in organising fundraising, events, and assisting with grant applications. Please email us if you are interested in helping. It’s fun!
Cub Skits
After learning all about Chinese new year on Monday night the cubs got to do a bit of improv!
Each six got to take some props and quickly make up a skit. Our Cubs will provide some great entertainment at campfires in future!
To Cap their indoor campfire off they roasted marshmallows and made smores on small stoves.
Scout Annual Camp
Recently the Scouts held a meeting for parents to discus the planned Annual Camp to Walesby Forest Park in Nottinghamshire in the UK. They plan to go for one week in August.
This is an excellent Scout Campsite which the 17th have stayed in many times before with plenty of on site activities as well as local attractions including the Coal Mine Experience, Nottingham Castle and of course Sherwood Forest!
This promises to be a fantastic camp but we do need to meet our minimum numbers to make it viable so we hope as many scouts as possible can make it!
Congratulations also to Myles who was recently affirmed as a Patrol Leader. Being appointed a Patrol Leader is recognition for all the extra work and help he has shown to our fellow scouts and his appointment was supported by all his fellow scouts. BRAVO!
Beavers Back to Basics
This term the Beavers are getting back to basics and learning about Backwoods skills. In recent weeks they tried putting first aid and survival kits together and last Wednesday they learnt all about fire safety and how to be safe around knives, saws, and axes! And they tried making their own compasses!
We’ll be putting all this into practice in a backwoods day in Larch hill in a few weeks time!