3rd Hampton Hill Scout Group

Where: Walton Firs Scout Campsite in Cobham

When: Scouts/Explorers & YL’s from Friday 4-6th July & Cubs from Saturday 5-6th July

This is a fab camp where Cubs, Scouts & Guides from the whole of Richmond district, come together for a weekend of fun and games.

Each group runs either a sporting tournament, football, rounders, volleyball etc., or a fun activity climbing, Zip Wire, branding etc., as well as the on-site activities, archery, air rifle (Scouts only), adventure course, etc., and a traditional Scout campfire.

The cost of the camp will be:

• £22 for Cubs (Saturday night only)
• £27 for Scouts or Explorers
• £15 for Young Leaders

If you’d like to come along, please fill in the application form and return soonest.

For every £10 customers spend in Sainsbury’s stores, online grocery site or petrol stations, customers will receive one Active Kids voucher.

Last year as a result of the campaign we benefited from some very popular sports kit which has been really well used over the last 12 months … but unfortunately it’s not indestructible and some now needs replacing again.

We would be really grateful if you could please donate to 3rd Hampton Hill Scout group. Just bring them in and give to a Leader; we’ll do the rest!

Time is running out for this year’s scheme – if you do have any vouchers knocking around at home, we’d be very grateful for them.

Just a quick reminder to all parents that there is a fair amount of lost property in some crates stored in the entrance hall to the HQ.

Can you please take a moment when you are next in the hall to check through and make sure that none of it belongs to you? Thanks!

Hi all, most of you will have received a letter in recent weeks asking for help to run certain ‘extra-curricular’ activities for the remainder of the summer term as the leadership team needs extra help.

I’m pleased to report that we have had sufficient numbers of volunteers to enable these activities to go ahead so please all get your entry forms in ASAP!

We started the Fitness Challenge Badge last term but only had one Scout return their exercise sheet. As we’re continuing the theme this term with evenings on food and health, if you want the badge you MUST complete the exercise routine for the specified period and return the attached sheet to Scouts. Tonight you’ll be getting a food log as well to keep a record of the food you eat for a week and this too needs to be returned to Scouts for the badge.

Finally, the programme for the coming weeks shows water rockets as an activity. Firstly, please send in your scout with 2 litre fizzy drink bottles and any materials you may think will help construction of wings, fins, (estate agent boards are excellent!) parachutes etc and secondly if we have anyone with a plumbing bent or an interest in rockets, please do come along and help.

Paul

Hi Everyone

First of all I must say that there was a top turn out last night with everyone looking good. Full uniforms all round, jumpers AND scarves! Well done!! Congratulations as well to Jacob and the rest of his team who did the best in the “Match Relay” and also had the best scores in all the cycling quizzes. Top effort!

Just a couple of things to mention. In the paperwork you took home last night there were some important forms:

1) Cycling Donation Form. This is in support of Shooting Star following the excellent visit we had last term by Dr Jean when she gave a show on her Nile expedition. It would be great to raise some money as a thank you and for the work that they do at the Shooting Star. Even £1 per cub would raise £50, so lets see if we can do that as a minimum! (Don’t forget to Gift Aid it too.)

2) Subs. As usual, please can we get these returned as soon as possible. A reminder that for the Beavers that have made the swim up there is the additional Section payment as well.

3) Highway code. These booklets are for information only, we’re in no way doing anything like the Cycling Proficiency award that many of you will do later in school and there’s no test or anything like that. But take a look at them anyway, there’s a lot of good stuff in there about safe cycling and road safety.

Finally – SUMMER CAMP – the list is up in the hut for anyone wanting to go. Please do note that there are only 40 spaces available so I would recommend getting your name down sooner rather than later. We’ll get the information out soon about cost etc, but it should be in the normal range of £70 to £80 per cub. (But like everyone else we get hit by the higher cost of food these days!) The dates are Saturday 26th July to Wednesday 30th July.

And on the subject of camps, check out the link for the 2009 CUBJAM, 2,500 Cubs descending on Gilwell Park for 6 nights for a MEGA CARNIVAL. 3HH have registered to go and this will probably be the only big camp we have next year, we hope you’ll want to come too!!

Hope you all have brilliant half term holidays. Cheers Jon

PS – Date for the diary Sunday April 26th 2009 – St George’s Day Parade in Richmond……!!!

What an event! It was a very successful day with approximately 60 shooters enjoying rifle, pistol, knockout and field target and the feedback we’ve had has been excellent.

So, how did you do? Well, for the full results please see attached, but firstly a word or two of explanation as we’ve cut back on the medals we’re awarding. When we originally planned this event, it was to run over two days with double the number of competitors, so as our numbers were lower than expected we shuffled the age ranges about and reduced the age ranges to 12 and under, 16 and under and adult.

(more…)

We need your help! There are many ways that you can contribute to the running of your child’s group, and some of them are simpler than you might think.

In particular, we are really keen to have parents come in and help during the section meetings once in a while. You don’t need any special skills, just those you already have as a parent.

Perhaps you could just come in and act as an extra pair of ears and eyes? We have approaching 130 children in our group and if everyone volunteered at least once per year to come in, we’d have plenty of help to run a really varied and exciting programme.

Please get in touch with your child’s leader about how you can help.

Here’s the deal. 3rd Hampton Hill Cubs are going camping Hawaiian Style. We’ll be maxing and relaxing at Chalfont Heights from the 26th to 30th July 2008.*

But there are only 40 spaces available, so get your name on the list in the HQ quick!

* More details from Akelas Jon and Wend to follow soon

This year’s summer camp will be from Saturday 23rd to Saturday 30th August. It will be held at Ferny Crofts campsite in the New Forest, a large and varied camp with wooded sites, open fields, ponds and a wide range of excellent activities buried deep in the heart of Hampshire.

During the week we’ll visit Beaulieu Motor Museum with it’s legendary world record breakers like Bluebird and Golden Arrow as well as housing the James Bond collection of boats and cars. In addition we’ll be taking a boat trip over to Brownsea Island – the historic birthplace of Scouting…

There will be bundles of onsite activities as well including: 60ft climbing wall, high ropes treetops course, mountain biking, crate stacking, raft building, mega zipwire … and the list goes on.

For more information and the sign up slip, please see the attached flyer.

Dear Beaver Parents,

Here is the revised summer program for Beavers this term. I have had to cancel the meeting on Friday 4th of July as I am away, and all the Cub and Scout leadership will be on Borough Camp. If you had signed up to help on that evening maybe you could help on another evening?

You may also notice that the last evening is invitation only. I thought that it would be a good idea to reward the Beavers who achieved one or more of the following: attending St Georges Day Parade, attending a Church parade or having a parent who volunteered to help. If you have any difficulties with this then please contact me or see me on a Friday evening.

Regards Jane

We have been invited to join the cubs for a sleepover on their Hawaiian Summer camp!

Where: Chalfont Heights, Denham Lane, Chalfont St Peter, Bucks, SL9 0QJ

When: 29th-30th of July. Times to be confirmed

Why: Fun, friends, loud shirts, silly songs around the campfire, camp activities, see what cubs get up to camp, earn a Nights Away badge and the chance to see Akala Jon in a grass skirt…maybe. Running around, being noisy and getting grubby may also occur.

If you would like to come to camp please fill in the slip at the bottom of the invite letter and return to me as soon as possible.

Jane

Advance Notice – Date for your Diary:

Saturday 12th July 2008.

3rd Hampton Hill Scout Group Summer BBQ and Diamond Anniversary Birthday Celebration.

Please come and help us celebrate the 60th year of the Group.

More details will be available soon – watch the Web Page for updates!

We look forward to seeing you there!

On Sunday at the Family Camp closing ceremony, Richard took the opportunity to award a Special Scouting Thanks badge to Diana. This is in recognition for all her hard work, help and support to the Group over a number of years and roles. Diana was a member of the Group Exec and was also very involved with many social and fundraising events. She has served as Group Secretary and is active at Group events and activities often working hard both in advance and on the day. Of course more recently she has been a stalwart of the Cub Section.

Diana is one of those selfless unsung heroes of the Group. She is a fantastic member of the leadership team, and is always the voice of sanity and common sense. Sometimes it’s all too easy to applaud those who stand at the front of the hall in a uniform taking the lead, but it’s equally important to stand at the back making sure things go smoothly. We’d be far poorer without Diana; if only we could clone another dozen just like her!

Many thanks Diana. Thoroughly deserved.

This year’s family camp was by anyone’s standards simply first class. The weather was stunning (certainly a contrast to the snow at Easter Camp!), activities were adventurous and there was plenty of lazying around in the sunshine …well for some of the time at least! The (thankfully) short AGM was even topped off by an incredible 60th birthday fireworks extravaganza to celebrate the Group’s diamond anniversary.

The photos speak for themselves. For those of you who came along, we were delighted to see you. For those of you who didn’t, well there’s always next year; everyone’s welcome – experienced camper or not.

After the evening meal on Saturday many of those camping took part in the wide game (thanks to Ian and Mel).

Martin (the Group Executive Chair) then led the Group in the Annual Review and AGM at which we reviewed the year. Richard, the Group Scout Leader, talked about a year packed with activities and the continuing challenge of recruiting additional adult help to run the growing sections, each of the Section Leaders said a few words about the highlights and achievements, we adopted the accounts for financial year and re-elected the Group Executive Committee. As a reminder, we are still looking for additional parent reps on the committee – one for for each of the Sections.

Akela’s Wend and Jon lead us in a campfire with a few 3HH campfire favourites: “Oh you’ll never go to heaven”, “A little bird with a yellow bill” and “Oh Helena”.

Saturday’s finale was a really fantastic ‘cosmic’ fireworks display. There were many sounds of delight, with oohs and aahs, from the assembled crowd – including 2 other groups on the campsite which we invited to attend and watch the display with us. Big thanks to Richard, Ben and John. A special mention of thanks to Danny at Tapps of Hampton Hill for the supply of the fireworks.

These events never come together by accident, and lots of people put huge efforts into making it happen. But a special thanks in particular goes to Mark Hamilton for both his unstinting advance planning and on the day short-order cooking! Fantastic! Thanks Mark.

(p.s. we’d be very grateful if you have any photos that you took over the weekend that we might be able to add to the site)

Welcome to the 3HH Annual Report for the year ending March 2008 (PDF format).

This report attempts to provide a view of the wealth of activities undertaken by the Group over the last 12 months. I hope you will find it informative and interesting.

Richard Moody, the GSL, has provided an excellent summary of the activities of the Group overall with section leaders providing more detail for each of their sections. Our Treasurer, Mark Hunter, has provided a summary of our financial position. Also attached is a copy of the audited accounts for the year dated 1 April 2007 to 31 March 2008 (Adobe PDF format*).

There are 2 projects that I would like to mention specifically.

First the development and relaunch of the website. Thanks to Simon Riggs we now have a fantastic website at www.3hhscouts.org.uk. Please visit the site if you have not already done so.

Secondly, last summer we took delivery of several tons of hardcore and laid the new footpath to the HQ. Spread over 2 weekends it was extremely hard work but I am sure you will agree the results are worth it. Many thanks to everyone who turned up and made it possible.

As Chairman of the Executive Committee and on behalf of all parents I would obviously like to thank the Leadership Team, helpers and my colleagues on the Executive Committee for their time and effort. However I would also like to say a special thank you for everyone who contributes. There are many unsung heroes who, in the background, make a substantial contribution to the running of the Group but don’t receive much public recognition. So for anyone who has spent their time transporting kids and equipment in their cars or vans, changed locks after attempted break-ins, shovelled hard core, made innumerable sandwiches and pots of tea, hassled estate agents, worked on stalls, wrote up minutes, cleared the gutters, cleaned the toilets…and the list goes on!

You know who you are. A very, very big thank you.

Finally, there will a Summer BBQ at the HQ on 12th July. Further details will be announced but please put this date in your diaries.

Martin Riddell
Chair, Executive Committee

For those of you who are joining us at this year’s family camp please see below:

Please arrive Saturday at 12pm and depart Sunday around 1:30-2pm after helping clean up the campsite and the closing ceremony at Walton Firs Campsite, Convent Lane, Cobham, Surrey, KT11 1HB. We will be located at the lower field campsite and have hired the training hut – this is to the far left as you enter the campsite from the car park.

(more…)

Hi all, attached to this post are the summer term programme, newsletter and programme information. I will issue activity letters once organisers are known for each event, although the Great Parent Scout Cookout Challenge information is here and should be downloaded ASAP so you can start planning.

To All Members, Family and Friends of 3rd Hampton Hill Scout Group:

3rd Hampton Hill Scout Group AGM and Annual Review Invitation

Our Review will be held around The Campfire at our Family Camp on Saturday 10th May 2008. Come along for a glass of wine, maybe a song or two, and find out what your Beavers / Cubs / Scouts enjoy most about campfires! Please arrive at 7pm.

(more…)