Jack Helps With The Big Blue Ocean Cleanup at Prestwick Beach

Jack and sister Ava cleaning up Prestwick Beach with the Big Blue Ocean Cleanup

Beaver Scout Jack Ross from the 14th Ayrshire Beaver Group (Prestwick) spent time when lockdown was eased, with Rory from the Big Blue Ocean Cleanup on how to improve Prestwick Beach. Big Blue Ocean Cleanup educates and raises awareness about the importance of clean and healthy oceans for sustaining life on earth.

Jack busy cleaning up Prestwick Beach

Sister Ava busy cleaning up Prestwick Beach

Big Blue Ocean Cleanup’s objective is to offer 7 to 14 year olds with an understanding of how ocean pollution impacts on the natural world and inspire them to do something about it.

When Jack started picking up rubbish from Prestwick shore, he learned that he liked cleaning up the environment.

Jack said ‘The most interesting bit of rubbish I found on the beach was a balloon, I learned that it can kill animals if they eat it. I also found lots of crisp packets and cans. I play on this beach all the time so it makes me feel sad when I see the rubbish. I find basking sharks really interesting and dolphins and it’s really important to protect them and other sea creatures. If we all pick up rubbish when we see it we could keep our beach clean.’

Jack researched all about basking sharks in our oceans

Jack researched all about dolphins in the worlds oceans

‘Spending time with Jack on the beach was very rewarding – teaching the next generation to protect our wild spaces and marine wildlife is very important. Jack was an incredible help in finding lots of ocean plastic and removing from the beach.’ said Rory from the Big Blue Ocean Cleanup.

The sorry state of our worlds oceans

Jack has been recognised for his dedication and has been invited by Fiona his Beaver Scout Leader to speak about his initiative to inspire others in his Scout Group, when face to face scouting returns’. Fiona continued: “It is very important living by the sea to get all generations involved in beach cleaning. You can’t start young enough. I am so impressed at Jack’s community spirit and his passion to teach other young people, that with every bit of plastic they pick up, they potentially can save an animal.

Beaver Scout Global Issues Activity Badge earned by Jack on his amazing work with Big Blue Ocean Cleanup

Jack has earned his global awareness badge as part of his work with the Big Blue Ocean Cleanup. He researched all about global oceans and pollution for this activity badge and what we can do to help the worlds endangered species.

If you want to know how you can get involved in the Big Blue Ocean Cleanup visit https://www.bigblueoceancleanup.org

 

 

Beaver Sandy Wins Loch Down Lodge Badge Design

Kyle & Carrick District Scout Group‘Loch Down Lodge’ Badge Design Competition
by Sandy Maitland, 14th Ayrshire Beaver Scout Group

All the Beavers, Cubs and Scouts from Kyle & Carrick District had a virtual camp together. We couldn’t camp together as a big group because of the Coronavirus Lockdown, so our Leaders created a virtual camp and called it ‘Loch Down Lodge’.

We had a competition to design a badge for our uniforms to remember it by. I did a few designs and I was lucky because one of them was chosen as the winning badge!

I first drew out my ideas on post-it notes, and I explained to mum and dad how I wanted my design to look. They helped me make it look more real on the computer.

My idea was to make a combination of a tent and a house together because we were all making our own camps at home. Some people camp in tents in their gardens, other people were making dens inside the house. I also wanted to include a cursor arrow and make it look like a button to click, to show we connect up and have lots of activities and fun on our Zoom meetings (we also send pictures and videos of our fun to the group during camp). I wanted the year 2020 in too, because in the future we’ll be able to look at our badges and remember when we talk about the camp we did during lockdown

Sandy and his certificate

Fiona Beaver Leader for 14th Ayrshire Scout Group said ‘well done sandy! Your winning design was incredibly creative.’

Scouts Blown Away with Excitement @ Loch Down Lodge

Despite the stormy weather last weekend , there was an excited atmosphere at the first virtual Family Kyle & Carrick District Scout Camp @ Loch Down Lodge.

Led by Fiona Hainey (14th Ayrshire Scout Leader) there was a host of activities and challenges over the weekend to keep the youngsters entertained.

Fiona said: “Despite the rain and wind, this certainly didn’t stop the smiles and laughter throughout the virtual camp.’

To launch this unique district family camp a competition was sent out to all the young people participating in the weekend to design the camp badge. With over 25 entries the standard was very high. The district committee chose 4 badge designs to enter into the final. They were: Harris Larson (14th Ayrshire Beaver) , Sandy Maitland (14th Ayrshire Beaver) , Jonathan McClung (18th Ayrshire Cub) & Jon McColm (12th Ayrshire Cub), with such a high standard of creativity it was really hard to choose a winner. But after careful consideration the winner was chosen to be Sandy’s brilliant design. All the judges felt he illustrated a truly unique badge which will now be manufactured and given to all the young people participating in the virtual camp!

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  Sandy’s winning badge design

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  Sandy with his certificate

The response from everyone was amazing and we had over 95 Beavers, Cubs, Scouts and Leaders join in the fun! If we then added in all the siblings and parents we estimated a minimum of 160 people pitching tents, making dens and lighting fires across the Loch Down Lodge Area (and beyond) over the weekend of the 4-5th July 2020.

The weekends program of activities aimed to give lots of practical ideas and useful instructions on different scouting challenges! The activities were divided into two sections. The first activities were challenges everyone had to have a go at, to earn their Loch Down Lodge camp badge and share their results. The second section was a wide range of activities often with a supporting video that the youngsters could pick and choose from.

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  Flag raised to start the camp

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  Family camping

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  Making fire lighters

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  Waterproof firelighters all ready to be used

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  Catapult challenge

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  Building a tower challenge

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  Snail racing

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  Decorating the toilet challenge

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  Knot challenge

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  Knot challenge

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  Knot challenge

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  Fun times

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  Den building

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  Hot air ballon challenge

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  Fun times

A suggested timetable was sent out in advance with an outline of the programme for the 24hour family camp. There were 3 group events that ran through Zoom but otherwise the timings were very flexible.
These events included raising of the camp flags, scouting awards, fire lighting demonstration, catapult demonstration and an evening of Disney quizzes and a fabulous bed time story by Simon Lamb.

Simon told the story of Green Eggs and Ham by Dr Seuss. His different voices and animated personality was brilliant to watch and you could have heard a pin drop, with all the young people listening to Simon’s story telling, which was truly a show stopper.

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  Hot Chocolate s ready and waiting for the bedtime story

All food was to be cooked on either the camp fire or bbq which by the looks of all the photos everyone thoroughly enjoyed.

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Brothers, Cub Ewan and Scout Corey said ‘the camp was great fun I loved the story of Green Eggs & Ham and doing our wild adventure walk!’

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Corey and Ewan’s Mum Emma said ‘it’s been a great weekend of activity and it was brilliant to see so many Young people across the district participating in the virtual camp, I even saw 2 Brownies joining in!’

Strong brothers organising their sleeping bags.

“We loved sleeping outside in the rain and wind because it was exciting listening to it all. The best bit was all the challenges put up for us, like cross the lava river.” Said Kaleb, Izaak and Jarod Strong.

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  Strong parents being blown about in their tent!

“Even though the boys are not doing face to face Beavers or Cubs they are still getting to experience so much thanks to all the leaders. Can’t thank them enough for helping entertain my 3 boisterous boys.”. Michelle Strong. x

Connor said “I loved the story and doing some of the challenges. The sausage sizzle and the floor is lava were my favourite”

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  Connor sleeping in his magical den

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  Mind Craft challenge

The camp came to a close on Sunday 5th July on a group zoom meeting. All the young people got to discuss their favourite elements of the family camp and join in one last game – a scavenger hunt spelling out WELL DONE, in house hold objects.

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The camp flag was then lowered signalling the end of a very successful family camp. Deborah Olesen, District Scout Commissioner for Kyle and Carrick said: ‘like lots of things, face to face scouting meetings had to be put on hold… but the determination & dedication shown by our leaders to find new & exciting ways to continue to deliver virtual scouting activities to our members is a credit to them… The Virtual District Camp last weekend was a fantastic example of this, bringing together our young members from across Kyle & Carrick District with their families, to enjoy a fun filled virtual activity camp. Huge thanks to Fiona for organising & to everyone who took part, making it a truly memorable event…’

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