Ron Shewry awarded for outstanding services to Scouting

Val Butcher and Ron Shewry

Ron Shewry received the Silver Acorn award for outstanding services to Scouting at Kidlington Scout Group's AGM on 13th May.

Assistant County Commissioner - Adult Support, Val Butcher, presented the award, which can only be given to those who have completed at least 20 years of specially distinguished service. Her presentation speech is below.

"Ron's Scouting career began in November 1974 when he joined 33 Oxford (Kidlington) Scout Group
as Assistant Sea Scout Leader. A year later he became Leader of the Sea Scout troop, and held that
role until 1997. During that time, he took his Scouts on many adventurous activities including
canoeing, hiking, hill climbing and skiing. He was also the County's adviser on water activities and hill walking.

Ron set up links with Scouts in Oxford's twin city of Leiden in The Netherlands and arranged
exchange trips between the Kidlington and Dutch Scout groups over many years.

His connection with the Oxford Leiden link and his boating skills once saw Ron being asked to skipper a sailing boat shaped like a Dutch clog down the Thames to promote Anglo Dutch relationships!

(L-R) Group Chairman Margaret Boggs, Group Scout Leader Andrew Innes, Val Butcher, Ron Shewry and District Commissioner Anthony Morris

After taking a small break, Ron became Group Scout Leader of Kidlington Scout Group, and held that post until 2004 when he gave up his uniform and joined the Group Executive Committee as Group Administrator.

In addition to this role, Ron has been Group Deputy Chairman since 2013.

Ron's work with the Group has been, and still is, invaluable and this award is richly deserved."

Did you hear us on the radio?

If you were listening to Radio Oxford during the 11-15th February, you may have heard some of our members on the Lilly Mitchell afternoon show.

Kidlington Scout Group was the show's 'club of the week' and from Monday to Friday, every show featured an interview with one of our members or leaders. Lilly Mitchell had visited the Scout Centre the previous Thursday to record the interviews while Jacala Cub Pack and Cherwell Beaver Colony were holding their meetings.

Joe from Cubs and Annabelle from Beavers talked about how proud they were of achieving their Chief Scout Bronze Award and explained how they'd had to complete a lot of challenge badges for the award.

Sea Scout and Cub Young Leader Jake spoke about how he enjoys being able to spend his summer meetings boating on the river at our boat base in Wolvercote and shared his favourite memory of rafting during a camping weekend by the river. Rafting was also a favourite activity for Cub Megan, 

and she also talked to Lilly about how much she loves being able to camp outside.

On the last show of the week, Jacala Cub Pack's Akela Becca explained that she became a leader because she'd enjoyed being in both Girlguiding and Scouts as a child and recognised that those experiences are only possible with volunteers running the groups. She wanted to provide experiences for young people like she'd had as a Brownie, Guide and Venture Scout and also has a lot of fun doing it!

Everyone did a great job and spoke really clearly, well done!

A bumper fundraising season

We've just completed our three major annual fundraising events: Christmas Post and Sainsbury's bag packing in December, and ScoutRail model railway show in January.

The combined total of these events passed £6K, which is amazing! Huge thanks to everyone who supported these events. We'll be spending the money on improving the accessible facilities at our Scout Centre.

Photos from ScoutRail model railway show at Exeter Hall, Kidlington on 5th and 6th January.

November

Once again, we were proud to be part of the Remembrance Day Parade in Kidlington. 

Our sections also ran special evenings to help our young people understand more about Remembrance Day. 

Cherwell Beaver Colony spent their evening at the Soldiers of Oxfordshire museum in Woodstock at a special event organised by its Education and Outreach Officer, Vicki Wood. It was a very enjoyable and interesting session where the Beavers learnt about WWI including what Scouts did to help during the war, what life was like in the trenches and why the poppy is used as a symbol of remembrance. 

What a fantastic summer!

Our Sea Scouts and Explorer Scouts both had action-packed summer camps.

Down in Bristol, the Sea Scouts had a go at climbing, abseiling, caving and orienteering; visited Fleet Air Museum, a RNLI lifeboat station and Bristol Zoo; and had a lot of games and activities at the campsite. All came away tired and happy having earned a lot of badges along the way.

Later in August, our Explorers set off to Taunton where they climbed, abseiled and caved in the same place the Sea Scouts had been a few weeks before; visited Minehead for sea rafting and stand-up paddle boarding;  and tried their hands at archery at the campsite. The weather wasn't so kind on the day of their hike, but they still had a great time and even stopped for a very chilly wild swim!

March and April: lots of eggciting Easter activities!

Scouts
The Sea Scouts kick-started their camping season with a weekend under canvas at Youlbury on 23rd-25th March. Despite some rain and chilly nights, the Scouts had a great weekend getting back to basics learning camping skills such as cooking on open fires.

Before breaking up for Easter, the Land Scouts took on an egg drop challenge. Using materials provided, including balloons and cardboard packaging, the Scouts had to make a case that would protect an egg when dropped onto the ground. 

Cubs
Jacala Cubs continued the egg theme by spending their last meeting before the Easter break at Youlbury for an evening full of egg-themed games and activities.

Three members of Mowgli Cub pack received their Chief Scout Silver Awards from Group Scout Leader Andrew Innes. Well done all!

Beavers
At the end of a busy term including lots of work towards their communicator badge, two Beavers received their Chief Scout Bronze Awards. Well done!

AGM
Our Annual General Meeting will be on Monday 14th May at 7:30pm at the Scout Centre in Blenheim Road. All are welcome.

Tesco Bags of Help
We’re delighted to have been chosen for the current Tesco Bags of Help scheme.  You can help us raise money for our toilet refurbishment project by voting for us when you shop in Kidlington Tesco or in other stores in and around Witney. At the checkout, you will be given a token to place in a voting box as you leave. There is no minimum purchase for a token so if you aren’t given one, please ask!

All of our sections have had a busy month, here are some of the highlights:

Scouts
The Sea Scouts had plenty to celebrate on 6th March as Bob Timms received his 15 year long service and leaders Trevor Newton and Giles Puleston received Chief Scouts Commendations. Five Scouts were also awarded their Chief Scouts Gold Award; well done to Emily, Samanyu, Lucy, Ella and Mia!

12 Sea Scouts took their Expedition Challenge over the weekend of 10th and 11th March after several weeks of planning, and a badge-work night saw Scouts earn the following badges: Hobbies, Sports Enthusiast, Physical Recreation, Musician. A cartoonist joined the troop for one meeting and taught the Scouts how to draw cartoon characters. In February the Troop celebrated Founders Day, which marks the birthday of Lord Baden Powell, with a theme based on the first Scout Camp run by Baden-Powell in 1907.

Cubs
Jacala Cubs had an animal themed weekend at the Scout centre on the 24th and 25th February, where they can a chance to meet and handle animals including snakes, lizards, a  meerkat and a hedgehog! In their meetings they celebrated World Book Day with a Roald Dahl themed evening and completed their International Badge learning more about China.

Mowgli Cubs had a fun evening filling the Scout centre with cardboard boxes to make a cave system and spent another evening at the new trampoline park in Bicester.

Beavers
Saturday 10th February was Oxford Spires Beavers District Fun Day, and ten of our Beavers attended an activity afternoon with the theme of ‘Global Issues’. Everyone had a good time and took part in Fairtrade, Recycling, Endangered Animals and Water Filter Activities, as well as some team games. We are pleased to say that all the Beavers passed their Global Issues Activity Badge too.

Explorer Scouts
Last month, the Explorer Scouts evenings involved making keyrings and bracelets with our Scout Group’s very own knotting expert Lonnie Boggs, and the young members ran several nights themselves including a night of ‘I’m An Explorer, Get Me Out Of Here!’ and a sports night. Some of the members also performed in the Gang Show at Radley College during half term.