The 14th Ayrshire Beavers, Cubs and Scouts of Prestwick are backing Dayns Appeal for Christmas selection boxes and advent calendars, to make this year extra special for children that are in hospital.
The appeal is for the Children’s Cardiac ward 1E at the Royal Hospital for Children, Ronald McDonald House Glasgow and ward 1A and 1B Crosshouse Hospital. After a heart felt appeal from one of our own Beaver Scouts Dayn, who has complex heart defects and attend the Royal Hospital for Children regularly for check ups and very soon an open heart operation to repair Truncus arteriosus with aortic arch interruption. (a full repair to all 4 areas).
Dayn said ‘Lets surprise all the sick kids in hospital for Christmas.’
Dayn
All the young people in the Scout Group asked family and friends to donate to the appeal. Last year the Scout group managed to collect over 100 advent calendars and selection boxes and this year we have smashed this total by collecting 110!
Fiona Hainey Beaver Leader for the 14th Ayrshire Scouts Group said ‘Dayn is a gift to those he’s around. His positive attitude and charitable nature is humbling. Dayn you are awesome!’
Dayn will deliver these tasty treats to the sick children and their parents over the festive period, hopefully bringing a smile to their faces.
Well done 14th Ayrshire Scout Group and the wider community for your generosity!
48th Ayrshire Scout Group (Dundonald) have begun a special partnership between the Scout Association and the Woodland Trust recently.
On Saturday 21st November 2020, Beavers, Cubs, Scouts, leaders and parents turned out in full force to plant a total of 105 trees in Newfield Farm which included: silver birch, field maple, pendunculate oak, grey willow, wild cherry and Rowan.
The day started just before 11am. Due to Covid restrictions all our young people needed to be accompanied by a parent and also bring their own spade and hand gel. The group would be planting the trees around the show field.
Planting trees is one of the biggest and cheapest ways of taking CO2 out of the atmosphere to tackle the climate crisis, according to scientists.
As trees grow, they absorb and store the carbon dioxide emissions that are driving global heating.
Sean, an Explorer Scout for the 48th Scout Group told us ‘it was great to get out and get some exercise by planting the trees, helping the environment and the bonus was getting muddy.’
Allan White, Scout Leader for the 48th Ayrshire Group said: “We’re delighted to have teamed up with the Woodland Trust.” He continues:”This is a wonderful way to reach out to young people, and to encourage them to get to grips with nature.”
“What was thought of being a mammoth task was in fact completed in just under two hours by the army of Scouting volunteers who came in the morning. I was totally overwhelmed by the turnout. I can’t believe we managed to plant all the trees so quickly.”
“This is a true testament to the power of Scouting and the great work they can do in our community and for our planet.”
A big thankyou to all the young people and their parents for turning up and socially distancing in the rain and in very muddy conditions to help plant these young trees on behalf of the Woodland Trust. We hope to see you again next year when we have another 400 to plant!
We are living through extraordinary times and although our freedom of movement is currently limited, our freedom of expression isn’t. Thanks to every single one of Kyle and Carrick’s Beavers, Cubs, Scouts and leaders who entered our first District Scout photography contest ‘Autumn Days‘
The Kyle and Carrick District Scout Judges were blown away by all of the amazing images submitted by the fabulous young photographers into this year’s ‘Autumn Days’ Photo Contest! A huge thank you to everyone who entered. Your talents are beyond appreciated.
Entries were judged in 5 sections: Beavers; Cub Scouts; Scouts; Explorers and Leaders. Each person was allowed to enter one photograph which they must have taken. All photographs were submitted with the name of the photographer, Scout Group and District details, title of photo and short description.
The Brief: The theme for the Kyle and Carrick District Scouts Photographic Competition 2020 is “Autumn Days”. It’s up to you how you interpret it but we’re looking for stunning photographs of the landscape, our wildlife (including beasts big and small!) people, agriculture or recreation. Be as creative as you can.
There are 5 different categories and then an overall winner
Beavers
Cubs
Scouts
Explorers
Leaders
Overall Winner (voted by the public on the Kyle and Carrick District Facebook)
Each category will have one winner. The entries will be judged by a panel including renowned photographer David Gilbert. The overall winner will be voted for by the public on the Kyle and Carrick District Scouts Facebook Page.
The judging panel LOVED looking through all the amazing pictures! Top photographer David Gilbert was invited to be the industry expert on the judging panel. http://www.saycheeseclick.co.uk
David said “Well done to everyone who took part, some really great photos that you should be proud of. Some of them were all about “capturing a moment” however brief, perfectly. Not an easy thing to do. A few of you had thought about the theme and set up some shots using the strong autumn colours some with added seasonal props. There were also some considered landscape scenes where the photographers had taken time to think about the right angle and viewpoint to capture it perfectly. It was a pleasure for me to help with the judging this year and I hope you all keep clicking and making great pictures as it is a skill you will be able to use throughout your life. Well done again!”
‘We love seeing the wild adventures, stunning scenery and the celebrations of Scouting spirit across the competition.’ said Christy Halbert Assistant District Commissioner.
The section winners are:
Beavers – Finn Ashcroft, aged 6 – 18th Ayrshire Beaver Group (St Colmuba) “A brave little wood mouse in the Forest of Dean.
Finn said ‘I feel amazed!
Cubs – Lachlan Dillon Age 8 – 18th Ayrshire Cub Group (St Columba) Stepping Across Autumn
Lachlan said ‘I am so chuffed to win the Cubs section. I was surprised as I don’t normally win anything ! I loved learning to use my Papas proper camera.’
Fraser said ‘ I very pleased that people liked his photo of the waterfalls beneath Ashness Bridge in the Lake District as he has just started photography and hope to improve his skills.
Overall Winner for the Kyle and Carrick District Scout Group Autumn Days Photography Competition voted by the public is
Jacob Boyce Age 7 – 18th Ayrshire Beaver Group (St Colmuba) “Autumn Leaves”
Jacob said ‘I feel excellent and delighted. I can’t believe I won!’
Deborah Olesen, District Commissioner for Kyle and Carrick Scouts said ‘what an amazing bunch of photographers we have in our young people! Huge well done to all who entered.’
Beavers, Cubs and Scouts from across the Kyle and Carrick District have paid their own special, colourful and moving tribute to those who served, fought and died in conflicts.
As the countries commemorations have had to be drastically scaled back, Kyle and Carrick District Scouts have provided their own act of remembrance to allow people to pay their respects to the fallen.
14th Ayrshire Beavers (Prestwick) A step of poppies made from painted pebbles by the 14th Ayrshire Beaver Scouts (Prestwick) has been ‘planted’ at The Cenotaph at Prestwick Cross.
Over the past 2 weeks the 2nd Ballantrae Beavers were busy with their Remembrance Day Activities …. creating Fallen Soldiers, finishing off with a two minute silence.
I’m so excited to let you know that we’re now restarted outdoor face-to-face activities at the 48th Ayrshire Scout Group (Dundonald) as of the 30th October 2020.
We were all looking forward to getting outdoor activities started again so our young people can gain more skills and have more fun together.
The Scouts from the 48th Ayrshire went up to Dundonald Woods and had a campfire and played a wide variety of games. All the young people and leaders were really happy to be back.
Cubs started back on Tuesday 3rd November. Cubs had just as much fun in the woods but had a sausage sizzle too. There couldn’t be a better way to restart face to face Scouting.
The 48th Ayrshire Scout Group will continue to follow official guidance, the safety of everyone involved in Scouts, both young people and adults, is our number one priority.
The sun shone through the frost on Saturday 7th November, which saw the first 14th Ayrshire Scout Group (Prestwick) Adventure Day of 2020, with the Beavers, Cubs and Scouts. They enjoyed 5 different activities throughout the day at Craufurdland Castle. They tried their aim at archery, found their balance on crate stacking, followed all the clues on the map to find the treasure, grew new communication skills for the variety of team building games and then rounding off the day completing the tree top Assult course. Which involved hanging above the world by just a thin metal rope, climbing, balancing, zip wiring and having nerves of steal.
Craufurdland Ltd has spent a long time busily introducing further safety provisions during Covid. Following the principal guidance to maintain social distancing, regular hand washing and frequent cleaning of key equipment, All our sections had tightly controlled session sizes and extra spacing between groups.
The main appeal of Craufurdland Castle was to get stuck into nature, with as few barriers as possible between us and the trees.
The young people were encouraged to put on harnesses but the masked up staff still conducted a reassuringly thorough check of our efforts. And then, before I could say Scouts they were up and away, climbing the wooden platforms through the park’s monumental trees.
The young people galloped across wobbly bridges and swung like monkeys, laughing all the way. Finally, they arrived at the zip wire. After months of bouncing off the walls of ther homes and trudging the same old streets in Prestwick, the young people leaped off a platform and into the air, hurtling cathartically across the leafy canopy.
All the cobwebs of the last few months were blown at once from everyone’s minds. As soon as their feet reached solid ground, They wanted to do it again and again. Sadly, our time was up. But the best bit was. every Beaver, Cub and Scout pushed through their own boundaries achieving things they never dreamt they could do! Scouting adventures like this just didn’t seem to exist in 2020. But if you look hard enough they are still out there!
A massive thanks to the leaders and parent helpers who gave up their Saturday to give young Scouts such an amazing experience. Thanks too, to the activity staff at Craufurdland Castle- you could not have made our Scout Group feel anymore welcome then you did! The young people loved every minute of the day! Thank you for doing what you do best!
Late one Friday evening just as the moon began to rise from behind the Carrick hills a strange sound was heard in the distance, was it the shriek of a banshee or the howl of a ghost? No! It was the Beavers and Cubs of 18th Ayrshire kicking off their first ever virtual spooky camp.
Dens built, flags made, pumpkins carved and lanterns at the ready we were all set to start our spooky camp.
We began with a joint zoom call between our Beavers and Cubs or should I say, skeletons, ghosts and zombies.
There was lots of fun, laughter and the occasional shriek, as beavers and Cubs designed unique and unusual monsters whilst blindfolded and created life size mummies. Hopefully by now all the mums, dads, brothers and sisters have managed to escape their bonds.
There were competitions for the best costume and lantern all of which were amazing!
And the fun didn’t stop with the zoom call! Beavers and Cubs then got started on their list of challenges. There was apple dooking, finding the sweets in flour, doughnuts on a string, spooky cake decorating and a scavenger hunt.
It was great to see so many of our families joining In and having so much fun! As a very wise bear once said “ we didn’t realise we were making memories, we just knew we were having fun!”
18th Ayrshire Scouts (St. Columba) ran a pumpkin carving competition this year with entries submitted online. Normally we are able to hold a meeting in the hall, carve pumpkins and play games – but not this year! On the plus side it meant that our young people could take a bit longer over their creations and the results were excellent.
The judges had a hard time deciding but the winner was the ‘Death Star’ by Aaron.
Joint runners up were the ‘pumpkin in a pumpkin’ by Noah and a 2 sided creation of ‘music and pumpkin face’ by Joshua.
We followed this up with a meeting on Friday 30th in the somewhat spooky surroundings of Belleisle Park, with the moon-lit shell of the Belleisle Hotel as a backdrop.
The Scouts went on a pumpkin hunt, played a few wide games and of course had some doughnuts and sweets. Whilst social distancing restrictions make life a bit harder our Scouts and Leaders have adapted and now quite used to what we need to do to stay safe.
Developing and running the programme for only outdoor meetings as the winter draws in is perhaps the challenge to come!
Written by James Edwards Scout Leader. 18th Ayrshire Scouts
Kyle & Carrick District Scouts 