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.