Category Archives: Group

News and Info for the whole Group

Our thoughts are with Akela

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As you have probably heard by now, Richard was involved in a serious accident last month when a tree fell on him as he was travelling to work on his motorbike during the storm at the start of half term.

Since then he has been in Intensive Care at Kings College Hospital whilst they try and stabilise his many injuries before they can transfer him to a specialist unit for further assessment and rehabilitation. So far he has made good progress and we are hopeful he will be out of Intensive Care soon. He will obviously be out of action for quite some time but also, potentially, be a long way from home too. This will place a great strain on him, his children and friends.

Richard has done so much, for so many in his years in Scouting and I feel it would be a nice gesture if we, as a Scout Group, could make a collection in order to do something special to support Richard during his recovery.

We would also like to send him messages from everyone that wishes to. He knows so many are thinking of him but it would be lovely to collect all these wishes together. The simplest way to do this will be to send an email with your message to 4thsevenoaks at gmail dot com, please title the subject “message for Richard”. We will collect them together and ensure they all reach him.

If you feel that you could spare any amount towards our collection, could you please send your donation in an envelope marked ‘Richard’ to our treasurer Jo Brookbank or give it to any of the leaders. I know it would be very much appreciated.

Update [19/11/2013] from Steph:

Hi everyone, I have just got back from the hospital to see Richard and the good news is that he has had the tracheotomy removed and is now only on positive air pressure to help support his lungs. He is also due to be moved to a neurological ward tomorrow which will hopefully be much quieter and enable him to get some sleep.

Update [23/11/13] from Michael:

Richard has now been transferred to Pembury, however this will only be temporary until a bed is available at a specialist spinal injuries unit which could be anything from a couple of weeks to a couple of months.  The visiting hours at the hospital are very flexible, and Richard would appreciate anyone relieving his boredom!

Update [11/12/13] from Michael:

Richard is in good spirits and looking forward to being transferred to Stoke Mandeville at the end of the week – he is not a big fan of the food in Pembury.  Stoke Manderville, with its internationally acclaimed spinal injuries unit, is the best place to help Richard with his rehabilitation.  One of his target for 2014 is to be able to visit us on 7Mag7 in May.

No news on visiting arrangements yet.

Gathering of Ghouls!

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The beavers and cubs had their Halloween party last night, and what a gruesome gathering it was!

Despite the fearsome sight, the ghouls set aside their differences and enjoyed a selection of party games including the now-traditional bobbing for chocolate in flour.

The evening ended with a nice selection of party food and a test-run of our new popcorn machine!

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Scouts Compete in County Cooking Competition

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A team of scouts competed in the “Ministry of Food”  cooking competition run by Kent Scouts today.

Their menu was

  • Home made garlic bread with a yoghurt dip
  • Salmon fish cakes served with green beans and carrots batons
  • Banana chocolate upside down pudding served with a rich chocolate sauce.

In the face of some stiff competition from well practiced teams, we came a creditable 3rd place.  Well done to Maggie, Francesca, Anthony and JJ.  With what we have learned this year, next time we will do even better!

The official photos from the event will appear on www.kentscoutsupportteam.org.uk in due course.

Scouts Victorious

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Scouts Victorious! Our team of scouts won the District Plender Hike last night – successfully navigating their way around the Kemsing course of a clear but chilly October evening.

Update: Thanks for the extra photos Carl. More photos and details of what happened in the event to come!

A big thank you to Peter and the team for organising it.  The one downside of winning is that it will be us that organise it next year 🙂

Family Camp 2013 Report

Family Camp Logo (1024x348) Everyone pitched their tents on a clear Friday evening.  When we were all set and refreshed by hot-dogs and soup, we were grouped into five teams. As a getting to know you exercise, the Young Leaders organised a game of Capture the flag .  After much to-ing and fro-ing, Team One emerged victorious after some allegedly questionable tactics. Team 5 drew the short straw and had to get up bright and early to cook breakfast on Saturday morning, but we were soon briefed and ready to start the Family Trail, a mini-incident  hike, around Seal and Sevenoaks.

In addition to testing our navigation skills, there were five incidents to test us along the way.  The first was a photography challenge around the streets of Seal where we had to reproduce 18 photos we were given.  The main challenge was the find the locations!  The second challenge was to build a copy of a Lego model hidden inside a box, with just a few tiny holes for us to be able to see inside. Challenge three was to tie nine knots – the most challenging being an alpine butterfly.  I think all teams had to resort to some impromptu internet research.  Challenge four was to follow an orienteering course through some woods, at the same time as gathering “tree fruits” and identifying leaves.  The final challenge was a pioneering one – build a free-standing flag-pole at least 5m high. The competition was extremely close in the end, with none of the teams scoring 100%.  The beavers did extremely well just to walk that far. For the remainder of the afternoon we all had a chance to do three different activities:   Archery – with our all-new archery equipment.  Air rifle shooting in the refurbished shooting gallery;  Bridge building across the stream.  Two of the teams built the bridge, the remaining teams tentatively crossed at first, before becoming increasingly daring.  The braver ones trying it backwards and blindfolded!

Dinner was jacket potatoes with a variety of fillings and the staple of all scout camps – swiss roll and custard, yum The day finished off with a campfire – old favorites from our campfire song-book plus some new ones.

Over-night the heavens opened, and several people abandoned their tents for the comfort of the horse-box (!) or the hall.

Sunday morning was quiet after another hearty breakfast.  A final go on the rope bridge before it was time to pack up and go home.

If you have any other photos you think could be added, please email them to Michael (bluefish101) and take the survey to let the group know what you would like us to change for next year.

Last chance to come to Family Camp

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This week is your last opportunity to join us on Family Camp on the weekend of 27-29th of September. Please bring your completed forms along to your unit meeting this week (before 18th Sept).

The programme is coming together nicely, and we look forward to trying out our new archery equipment.

We hope to see as many of you as possible!

Paul

Form and camp equipment list pdf-icon-24x24

Letter from Paul (GSL) pdf-icon-24x24

Occasional Helper form (links to the scouts.org.uk) external-link

Summer camp mid-week update

Halfway through our camp and we have been geocaching, ridden one of the county’s top-three mountain biking routes, done some archery, eaten spit-roast beef and at the moment the scouts are paddling down the river Wye in canoes and kyacks!

The camp site at Biblins is great – right next to the river. The weather has been variable, but it hasn’t stopped us doing anything.

Next report later in the week.
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