Chickasaw chatter

1st Stotfold Chickasaw Beaver Scout Colony

AGM Report 2008

Well here we are again at the end of yet another action packed year that I hope everyone has enjoyed.  Through most of the year we have had a full Colony of 24 children.

During the year we have given out over 150 Badges including 62 Centenary badges, some Beavers achieving all 4 badges.  We have awarded 5 Chief Scout Bronze awards for which the boys have to complete a personal challenge. The challenges that the boys have chosen to do have been very varied and have included Lego, Impersonations, Ducks, Tools and Cookery.  As from January Beavers now have 6 Challenge badges and 12 activity badges that they can gain as well as the 6 staged activity ones that all sections can work towards.  They will now gain their Chief Scout Bronze Award by completing all six Challenge Badges and no longer have to do a personal challenge.

Here are some of the activities that we have done during 2007 – 2008.

We started the Summer Term by making flags for the St George’s Day Parade.  We also went Pond Dipping and caught some large fish!  We spent an evening doing 100 activities to gain one of the Centenary Badges.

In May we visited the Bird of Prey Centre at Shuttleworth and had to retreat into the marquee when the heavens opened.

In June we went Bug Hunting in the woods and had a games night with Cheyenne Beavers.
July saw us making a totem pole for our American evening, visiting Shefford Maze and enjoying an end of term party which included a bouncy castle.

After the Summer break we got back into the swing of things with ‘Around the World in 80 minutes’ making passports and visiting different countries.  We also had a ‘Bring-a-friend’ evening in September as part of the centenary celebrations and about 20 Beavers brought along a friend.  It was a very noisy night!

During October we made masks to display at the annual Arts & Crafts exhibition run by the Parent’s Association.

In November Charles came along and taught us how to do map reading, we filled 14 shoeboxes for the Samaritan’s Appeal and Michael Stone & Lawrence Peace came along to tell us about their visits to the World Jamboree and Brazil.

We took part in the Christmas Tree festival at St Mary’s Church in December and finished the term with a party with a Magic Show by Rick Powell.

At the start of the New Year we had visits from Jean Hill, who brought along some Fair Trade products, and Mark Pearson, our local police community support officer.

After half term we spent two weeks doing the Emergency Aid Stage 1 badge with the help of Zena Collings from the St John Ambulance.

In the weeks before Easter we grew Grass Heads for our Experiment Badge, played parachute games and had an Easter night playing games and making nests.

Group events that we have taken part in have included the St George’s Day Parade and fun afternoon, a visit to the County Camp at Phasels Wood, a Centenary sleepover camp for Cubs & Beavers and the Remembrance Day Parade.

My thanks go to Sam Powell (White Rabbit) my Assistant Leader who helps me run the Colony.   We also say thank you to Jan Ray who comes along to help us week by week when she is able to and thanks also to the Scouts who have helped us this year as part of their Gold Chief Scout Award. The Beavers do enjoy having them around.

Many, many thanks to all the parents who have helped us out in any way during the past year, especially those who have helped out week by week at our meetings.  We really are grateful and it certainly does make the evenings run smoother when we have extra help.

Here’s to another year of fun!
Yours in scouting
Silver Fox
Clare Kilby