1st Bridlington Scout Group 2008 Cub Activities

Cub Scouts are boys and girls age 8-10 1/2. They have all made their Cub Scout promise: "I promise that I will do my best, to do my duty to God and to the Queen, to help other people, and to keep the Cub Scout Law". The Cub Scout Law is: "Cub Scouts always do their best, think of others before themselves, and do a good turn every day".
Cub Scouts are active. We get out of doors every month - even in the winter - and find out for ourselves what a brilliant place Bridlington is.

Not only Bridlington! In August 2008 heard that our Cub Pack has beaten all the others in the country to win a free weekend at the big Scout Activity Centre in Kielder Forest. It will cost us a fortune to take advantage of the free weekend - travel costs will be over £200.00, and we will have to pay for our food - but we will go anyway. When the Cubs were asked whether they wanted to go canoeing or rock climbing in November they unanimously said "both".

Our motto for the year is

Go away, do something

This is how 2008 has gone so far ...

In January ...

They said it would be too cold. They said that modern children aren’t tough enough. They said that all they want to do is watch TV.

They were all wrong.

At 10:00 on Saturday 5^th January, Cub Scouts, 1 Beaver Scout and brave parents met outside Bridlington Priory. They were well wrapped up. It is not warm in Bridlington in January. It is even colder Up North in Scarborough, and the First Bridlington Cub Pack was going to cycle from Scarborough along the route of the old Scarborough-Whitby railway line.

“But won’t it be very muddy in January?”

Maybe.

“But do Cub Scouts like getting filthy?”

Maybe.

At Scalby they had a hot drink. At Cloughton they had a snack.

“Had enough then?”

Certainly not, and the fittest of the fit powered uphill for another 2 miles towards Hayburn Wyke through the mud.

Helpers came across from 36^th Bradford South Scout Group to see for themselves how tough Bridlington Cub Scouts really are – and they were impressed.

“We had heard that Cub Scouts in Bridlington were good, but we didn’t know they were that good”, said Paula Burnett, Cub Scout Leader from Wibsey.

It was a brilliant day out.

Certificates were awarded for maximum effort and endurance to everyone who finished  smiling. That was everyone.

The parents weren’t bad.

We worked towards the Cub Scout Astronomer badge and invited the famous astronomer and broadcaster John Harper over to amaze us with a tour around the Universe.

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In February ...

We went down to the library to find out about how books are organised, and how to find out more about astronomy.

Sunday at the Priory: We held the 2008 Bridlington Beauty Competition to the amazement of the morning congregation at the Priory Church who thought they had come to an act of worship ... and then discovered that they had.

We presented the bird boxes to the Verger ...

... who nailed one of them up, and thought he had done a good job.

One Tuesday Pack night we went up the bell tower of the Priory where Tony the Chippie showed us how to ring the great Priory bells. We startled the inhabitants of sleepy old Bridlington by having a go ourselves. Even if we did not sound quite as good as the proper bell ringers, we got at least as much pleasure from the exercise as they did.

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In March ...

In March birds start building nests, hens start to lay eggs, and allotment holders start to clean up the areas that they meant to sort out last October but didn’t find the time.

A corner of the Hilderthorpe Allotments was untenanted in 2007, and members of the public in Bridlington thought it would be a good idea to steal across at night and dump their old unwanted rubbish there.

A new group of tenants want to start cultivating the land, but found the junk more than they wanted to deal with. The 1^st Bridlington Cub Scouts wanted to find something useful to do that they could do well, and help their local community. A perfect match.

So on 1^st March in the glorious sunshine, a group of Cub Scouts put aside their smart uniforms, and came in old clothes to try to make an impact on the mess. It wasn’t all hard work. The event had hidden benefits as well that they were not expecting. An allotment holder made some surprise chocolate brownies and brought them down. They found a bath that someone had dumped which they could have a go at sinking in the ground to make a pond for frogs, Akela had grown some magnificent turnips that they could dig up and take home, and everything was dry enough for them to have a go at a Scout’s favourite occupation – lighting a fire.

Just 1 match and no paper!

At the end of the morning they went across to find that someone had over 20 eggs that needed to be hatched. Akela has an incubator, so one of the cubs took the eggs home to see whether anything will come of them.

Then (is it only 11:30?) they walked along the footpath to Bessingby, carrying the eggs in an open tray, where they were relieved to find a Cub Parent who would take the eggs home for hatching. Across the fields, along the path over the railway line, and down to the beach for packed lunches. The weather was ideal for organising a quick mini-Olympics before walking back to Bridlington, tired and happy.

“You have to be tough to be a 1^st Bridlington Cub Scout.”

On Easter Day, the eggs hatched. For a report in the Bridlington Free Press see

http://www.bridlingtonfreepress.co.uk/news/Meet-the-Peckhams.3914683.jp

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In April ...

We went for a hike to Flamborough in the snow on Easter Tuesday. Cubs are taking it in turn to look after the chicks for a week until it is time to take them back to Dexter who gave us the eggs. So far, no one has eaten any of them.