AJ17 – coming soon

So following the huge success that was Subzero we have decided that we are going to go to AJ17 !
Auchengillan Jamboree is an international camp that happens every 5 years, Inverurie attended last time and (despite it raining for the whole time) everyone had an amazing time!

The camp is held north of Glasgow and features Scouts from overseas as well as Scottish groups, it lasts 5 days from 29th July to 5th August.

Scott and his amazing team have got all the places booked in, deposits are paid and now we are embarking on some fundraising.
We will need your support for this as us Scout leaders have lots on our plates as it is.

AJ is ran by the same team that did Subzero so this should tease what will be happening!

Keep an eye on your inboxes for information coming in.

Subzero

30 Scouts and Explorers had an incredible weekend Auchengillan activity centre near Glasgow for the national Subzero camp!
Subzero saw over 700 Scouts and Explorers from around Scotland come together for an amazing weekend of extreme activities in Subzero temperatures!

We all got together the our Scout hut to load up the bus and then piled in to start our adventure. Scouts, Explorers, young leaders and leaders all mixed together for a few hours of chat. When we arrived at the site to set up our tents and started meeting new people around the big fires that were set up around the site. The opening show saw our Scouts up on stage wrapping each other in clingfilm followed by an amazing hog roast and hot chocolate at the camp fire!
The Explorers and older Scouts were away in the Explorer only sub camp. So they stayed up late having their own fun.

Saturday was where we started with the Extreme Activities! Laser tag, inflatables, bubble football, archery, shooting, climbing, abseiling, paradrop, sledging, survival with the army, go karts, roller blading, bucking bronco and paint balling!
Everyone, Scouts, Explorers and leaders had a great time joining in together in all the activities.

In the evening there was a Ceilidh in the barn, relaxing in the winter cafe and by the fire, hunt the yeti wide games and Ice age was showing in the canteen. The Explorers had their own pool party with DJ!

Off to bed after a hot chocolate in our shelter.

That night temperatures dipped down to -4 !!! So getting out of our sleeping bags in the morning was a challenge! But the promise of a hot breakfast prevailed…

On Sunday half of us went away to the local Ski centre for dry slope skiing and tubing – sounds like they had a great time! The rest of us carried on with the extreme activities from the previous day that we hadn’t managed to get round to.

Packed lunch to have while we packed up our stuff and headed back on the bus home.
Quick stop for some munch in Forfar before getting home to the Scout hut.

Subzero was an absolutely fantastic weekend, we will certainly be going back to Auchengillan again soon!
Having the Explorers and Scouts all together helped bond them and many of them are now friends.
However by allowing the older Scouts and Explorers to camp with freedom away from the younger ones and leaders on the Explorer Subcamp will have hopefully allowed them see how much fun Explorer Scouting can be.

Check out the all our photos on our Flickr page

Founders Day 2016

Today we celebrated founders day at the Gospel Hall in Inverurie. The Beavers, Cubs and Scout joined together to remember the big man who set up Scouting back in 1907 – Lord Robert Baden-Powell.

New Beavers, Cubs, Scout and leader were invested.
Saltire awards were presented to all the leaders and young leaders aged 14 – 25 for all their efforts volunteering.
A Scout got a special award for donating her hair to a children’s cancer charity.
Lynn, assistant Cub leader, was presented with her wood beads – for completing all adult training.
Beavers, Cubs and Scouts read out prayers and lead songs.

Geoff lead a brilliant fashion show to highlight the changes and similarities in Scouts from back in the day and today! With Beaver, Cub and Scout uniforms from when those sections started 30, 100 and 106 years ago respectively. As well as uniforms from American and Irish Scouts.

Many thanks to those at the Gospel Hall who provided bakes and drinks as well as a wonderful service.
Special thanks to Louise and Lynn for organising it all.

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Bowline Champions

Last year we revived the annual Inverurie Merlin Troop Bowline Champion competition. This is a great traditional competition which was started in 1988 – which was long before most of the Scout leaders were born!

Last year the competition was won by Ben Sharp – who was fairly new to the troop at the time!
This year it was won by Katy – huge congratulations to her!

Inverurie Merlin Scout Troop Bowline Race Champions
2015 – Katy Downie
2014 – Ben Sharp
2011 – Cameron MacKenzie
2005 – Janine Jaffrey
2004 – Stuart Lorimer
2003 – Scott Henderson
2002 – Scott Henderson
1998 – Angus Ross
1997 – David Fraser
1996 – Richard Heh
1995 – Vicki Vaughan
1994 – Andrew Whyte
1993 – Ewan Collins (Forres Eagles)
1992 – Mark Gardener
1992 – Ian Morrison
1991 – Christy Burr (2nd Inverurie Guides)
1990 – Steven Gardiner
1989 – Charlie Barrow
1988 – Ross Greig

Explorer Belt

Over the summer Gordon District organised an Explorer Belt expedition to Germany and some of our team went along too!

An Explorer Belt is a 10 day expedition in another country where you have to walk 100 miles, stick to a tight budget, work on a project and complete a series of challenges. They managed to complete challenges like getting a flag on top of a castle, meeting the Burgermeister (Mayor), completing a service project for a family, sample local delicacies, learn some phrases, get in the newspaper and many more. The Explorer belt is the most challenging award in Scouting – but they all gained it! Well done!

Scott Adams – our Scout leader – walked from Vianden in Luxembourg along the German border into Belgium, then up to the Netherland and looped back into Germany. His team were looking at tourist attractions and the thoughts of the locals.

Alice Berry – our assistant leader at Ury Beavers & Harlaw Cubs  – walked around the South West of Munich, between the Starnberg See,  the Kochel See and the Ammersee. Her team was studying tourism around the lakes

Thomas Berry & Justin Cocker – Our Young leaders at Barra Cubs & Merlin Scouts

 

Group Camp 2015

Once again the group packed our bags and headed out for a huge camp! We spent the weekend at Daviot with the Cubs, Scouts and Explorers staying for the whole weekend and the Beavers joined us from Saturday afternoon. The theme for our camp was Japan – as we were celebrating the upcoming World Jamboree which was being held in Japan. Scott prepared a great oriental menu which which everyone enjoyed and all the rest of the activities were themed as well! From geisha face painting, chop stick races, sumo wrestling and much more.

 

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100 years of Cubs

2016 celebrates 100 years of Cub Scouts. There will be HUGE regional camp at Aden country park but we are starting the celebrations early by holding a Cub fun day at Daviot for the whole region. Over 200 cubs had a great day out and we all have to thank our own leader Linda for organising such a great event. Ava and Cheese also organised the day.

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Our brilliant Beaver leaders!

We had a Beaver sleepover at Newmachar Scout hall on 22nd March where the Beavers went “Around the World in a Day”. Check out our blog to find out more about the event.

For now though let’s give a huge thank you to the leaders who organised and ran the sleepover for the kids. All the leaders do a wonderful job . Here is some words of thanks from the parents.

I just wanted to say a big thank you to yourself and the rest of the team for a fantastic sleepover.
[Beaver] came home full of excitement about all the activities they had completed and couldn’t wait to show us his bag of goodies. He said that it was a great sleepover.
Thank you for all the effort that is put into these events to ensure our kids have an amazing experience. The amount of work that it must have taken for all activities in the past 2 days is incredible.
Please pass on our thanks to everyone involved in this weekend, we as parents really appreciate all the efforts.

A big thank you to all the leaders for a fantastic sleepover, we’ve been hearing all about it and I thought the beaver passport idea was just brilliant!

Thank you to you and the gang for taking [Beaver] on his sleepover. He had a great time.

Absolutely fab and very well organised event [Beaver] had such a great time. I’m so glad he went now and I got to share part of the experience with him.

Just wanted to say a huge thank you to you and all the other leaders/helpers for organising and holding sleepover. [Beaver] had a fantastic time and I knew he would be in safe hands. You guys do a fantastic job and are so organised, I don’t know how you do it. I think it should be a thank you café for you guys on Wednesday not the mums.

Brilliant planning and executing of a brilliant camp, you should be proud of yourself and your team. Well done.

Leaders awarded wood badge!

This Founders Day, February 23rd 2014, saw two of Inverurie’s leaders gain their highest award to date – the wood badge. Lesley Berry – Inverurie’s Group Scout Leader and Louise Nicol – Beaver Scout Leader, were presented their awards, along with the Gillwell necker and wood beads by the Gordon District Scout Commissioner Keith Millar.
This award is given to leaders whom have completed the comprehensive training programme set down for all Scout Leaders.

On behalf of all the Beavers, Cubs, Scouts and Leaders at Inverurie a HUGE congratulations to Lesley and Louise on their achievements, they are very well deserved!

The Inverurie Scout Group has over 120 young people as members but we are currently experiencing a severe shortage of adult leaders, willing and able, to join the Scouting family, undertake the training and deliver an exciting and balanced programme of activities to all our young members aged 6 – 14 years.

This training is world class and is recognised by the Open College Network (OCN), The Institute of Leadership and Management (ILM) and The Institute of Training and Occupational Learning (ITOL).

We would ask therefore, if you have been, or are interested in becoming, a part of the Scouting family by taking on a role as an adult volunteer then please come forward and help us continue to give these 120 children the time of their young lives by being a part of the 26 million worldwide fraternity of Scouts.