All news items from the 23rd Bromley Scout Group.
Spitfire Beavers had a great day at Frylands Wood campsite on Sunday.
There were 23 young people having a go at Archery, the Assault Course, the Traverse Wall, a Photo Challenge, Grass Sledging and Pond Dipping. We found lots of wildlife in the pond and no one got too wet!
There was a lot of loud singing with actions around the campfire and some yummy s’mores. All beavers are ready for the next big adventure!
Scout HQ Working Party – Saturday 12th June 9.30am – 12.30pm
It is great that Scouting is slowly recovering from its enforced slumbers and its pleasing to see the Scout HQ is being used again. Our HQ however is currently looking a bit tired and unloved, especially outside.
We will be holding a working party on the morning of Saturday 12th June from 9.30am to 12.30pm and invite leaders, parents and friends to come along and lend a hand, even if you can only come for some of the time please do.
There will be a variety of jobs, not just gardening, to be done – all in accordance with current social distancing advice.
If you can, please come along and help us make a difference to make the Scout HQ a great meeting space for our Young People.
Have you ever thought about helping out at the 23rd Bromley but not sure if you have enough time or what you would like to do? We are looking to start the Four Week Challenge with Hurricane Beavers who meet on a Tuesday 5.00pm-6.30pm.
The Four Week Challenge is a gradual introduction to Scouting to show new volunteers just how much they can get out of it, and how many different roles there are. You can come for the whole meeting, but you don’t have to attend every meeting for the whole session. You might be able to help with particular activities or badge work, help with the accounts or complete the register and other paperwork at the start of the meeting for example.
Week 1 – Come and see what we do and meet the team
Week 2 – Help out, maybe run a short activity or a game or help with some administration
Week 3 – Get a little more involved
Week 4 – Decide if volunteering is for you
If you would be interested in giving the Four Week Challenge a go, then please drop us a message or email gsl@23rdbromleyscouts.org
It is with deep sadness that the Group announces the passing of Bill Grierson, our Group Vice President. Bill had been unwell for a few months and passed away at St Christopher’s Hospice on Saturday afternoon.
Bill was a Cub, Scout and Rover Scout in Edinburgh and took up his first adult Scouting appointment in 1954 at the age of 19 as an Assistant Scout Leader with his local Group and even helped by volunteering at another Group whilst he was away on National Service.
He was a pivotal member of the 23rd Bromley for 44 years, joining the Group shortly after they moved to Petts Wood from Edinburgh. Bill’s work brought his family to Bromley from Edinburgh in the mid 1970’s. They met their new neighbours who invited them to a New Year party, at the Scout Hut at 5pm and not even on New Years Eve, but that was the start of Bill’s long and valued association with the 23rd Bromley.
He joined the Group as an Assistant Scout Leader (ASL) in 1977 and subsequently became Group Scout Leader (GSL) from 1991 to 2000. When Bill stood down as GSL in 2000 he became Group Secretary until 2014, when he was given the role of Group Vice President.
Bill also supported Bromley District Scouts, where he was an active member of the Wilberforce Tuesday Club – regularly acting as Duty Warden alongside his role as Wilberforce Treasurer.
Bill’s service was rightly recognised with the award of The Silver Wolf in 2012 – this is the highest award in Scouting. Its the “unrestricted gift of the Chief Scout and is only awarded for service of a most exceptional nature”. He also received the Chief Scouts 40 years Service Award in 2015.
Bill Grierson – Gone Home
29th December 1935 – 27th February 2021
The past year has been one of the most challenging in the Groups 80+ years of existence. Not only have we not been able to hold any face-to-face activities, we have not been able to hold any of our fundraising events, and have had no income from letting out our HQ.
We normally raise around £7,500 per year from events such as the Pantomime, Gang Show and Christmas Fayre. We have also not been charging termly subscriptions for our 100+ Young People for nearly a year. Due to the fact that the HQ is assessed as part of the Church premises, the business rates exemption means we are disqualified from applying for financial support from the local authority under the various business and charity support schemes that are open to other Scout Groups.
Despite this, we have still had significant outgoings, there is a fixed membership fee which the Group still has to pay for each child every year. There are also utility bills and costs related to the upkeep of our premises. We expect our overall outgoings for this current financial year will total approximately £4,000 for HQ running costs and approximately £5,000 for membership subscriptions.
As we have not been charging termly subs recently, we would like to ask parents/carers and group supporters, if they are able, to consider making a voluntary donation to the Group to help cover our annual costs. We are very aware that this year has seen many families face financial challenges and so if you are not in a position to make a donation this will not affect your child’s membership of the Group.
We have set up a donation facility below via our secure PayPal account.
If anybody is interested in donating but would rather do so via another method, then please email treasurer@23rdbromleyscouts.org.
You can keep up to date with our donations by visiting our donation page.
We would like to give our heartfelt thanks to everyone that makes a donation. As an organisation we are reliant on fundraising, donations and subscription payments. All donations will allow us to continue to provide high quality Scouting for Young People in the local area.
Best wishes
Jenny Owens and Sandra Goodwin
Group Scout Leaders
It has been a challenging last 11 months for the group, not only have we not been able to meet in person, but we haven’t been able to carry out any of our usual fundraising activities.
The group were therefore delighted to have been contacted by a family member of a former member (and one of our first ever Queens Scouts!) who gave a generous financial donation to the group. We receive no funding from other organisations, and rely solely on subscription payments and money from fundraising. This donation will go towards helping the group to continue to provide Scouting for the young people of the local area.
We appreciate that others may wish to make a donation to the group, and are working on plans for this, watch this space…
Happy New Year to all of our Young People, Parents/Guardians, Leaders and Supporters.
What a year its been for the 23rd Bromley! It started off well in January with another entertaining Pantomime which raised £2,600 and a very kind donation from Sir Robert McAlpine which allowed us to purchase a wide range of new camping equipment. February saw Spitfire Beavers hold an awesome Hogwarts themed sleepover at Wilberforce, before the Explorers become Scouts of Steel champions in early March.
In the middle of March we were faced with the suspension of face-to-face Scouting for the first time in the groups history, but despite this we have still been busy. From April onwards we have:
We would like to thank everyone who has supported us over the last 12 months, in what has been one of the most challenging years for the group. We expect there are still a number of challenges ahead of us, but we are hoping to get back to some form of normality in 2021.
Well what a year 2020 has been, it started well with lots of great things happening in the group and then in March face to face scouting stopped and that is where we still are unfortunately.
Although we haven’t been able to meet up as we would normally all the sections have been keeping in touch with all their young people and there has been some great things happening on Zoom.
We are preparing our risk assessments and although it will be different we hope to be returning to face to face scouting sometime in the new year, obviously Government guidance, Scout Association rules and local risk levels permitting.
Lastly, Sandra and I would like to say thank you to all the leaders for carrying on through these very difficult times and to thank all the parents and supporters for your continued support.
We wish everyone a happy Christmas and hope 2021 brings more normality.
Best Wishes
Jenny Owens
Group Scout Leader
Our friends over at Harambee for Kenya are making a number of festive figures as part of a Christmas fundraising campaign for the charity. The large reindeers cost £12 and are about 13 inches tall, and the small snowmen cost £6 and are about 7 inches tall.
To place an order, please send us a message on Facebook, or email admin@23rdbromleyscouts.org, with your name, an email address and details of what you would like to order. We will then email you with details of how to arrange payment.
If you would like to order one then please place an order with us by Saturday 12th December – the items will be ready for collection from around Saturday 19th December.
The proceeds from the sales will go towards supporting the boys at the safe houses in Kenya. More details about the charity can be found at: https://harambeeforkenya.org/
Do you have 30 seconds to nominate the group for a £1,000 donation?
We have been given the opportunity to enter the Group into a prize draw to win a donation of £1,000. The last year has been challenging for the group, so funding opportunities like this are now more important than ever.
To help our chances of getting a donation, please click the button below and complete some basic personal information:
The more nominations our Group gets, the greater our chance of winning, so please spread the word…