Tales from the Scout Hut Although It's Now October and the Summer
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Tales from the Scout Hut Although it’s now October and the summer seems a long time ago, for many of us the week at the Kent International Jamboree 2017 at Detling is still fresh in our minds and with many fantastic memories. In fact, you may have seen some of the Scouts around the village wearing their Jamboree t-shirts and hoodies for weeks afterwards! We had rain, sun, blocked toilets, a weeks’ worth of fantastic international food and made new friends – well, there were 6000 of us from 25 countries, so no shortage of people to meet. The week kicked off on Sunday with ‘Bear in the Air!’ The Chief Scout, Bear Grylls traditionally takes to the air in a helicopter for a weekend in the summer to visit as many international camps as possible and KIJ was the first on list! Everyone in the group got the chance to see him when he visited our Subcamp stage, Interamerica. For two of our Leaders, Liv and Eleanor who were with the International Service Team at KIJ, it was a very special visit as Bear presented them with the Chief Scouts Personal Award. They received this award for their actions when, as two 17 year old Explorer Scouts, they were the first on the scene of a road traffic collision at Shatterling last Autumn and organised the emergency response and looked after the injured until the emergency services arrived on site. It was a very special honour to receive the award from the Chief Scout himself and later in August he named them his #August Scouting heroes on social media. So, with Bear’s visit and then the Opening Ceremony, the Jamboree kicked off with a bang that even the rain couldn’t dampen. We had a visit to London where we did a walking tour of the major tourist sites and the Scouts spent a day at Bewl Water taking part in water activities. On site there were many activities laid on including the Woodland Zone, a giant assault course, Creative Zone, shooting, archery and much more. In the Global Zone, many of us found the chance to try out a number of tea ceremonies from Nepal which proved very interesting. On the final day, we had Festival Day on our subcamp which gave us the opportunity to visit all the groups we were camping with and try out games and food from regions throughout the American continent. We all came together for a festival lunch of fun and music, when Josh one of our Explorers, showed off his Gangnam dancing on the stage and many of our leaders also took to the stage to lead the subcamp in the Timewarp! That evening the whole site came together, as is traditional, for the Closing Parade and Ceremony – full of noise and colour and the closing fireworks. It was truly a week to remember. Well done to all our Explorers who sat their A levels this summer and who are now off to university – they all achieved amazing results and will be studying Veterinary Medicine, Medicine, Architecture, Geography, Sport Studies, Drama and much more – we wish them good luck as they go on in their studies. And a huge well done to all our Explorers who achieved fantastic GCSE results. A new Scouting year is now underway. It’s all change at the Scout Troop and Explorer Unit as meetings have moved to one Saturday a month, and one weekday evening a month. As well as enabling all the Leaders to continue to support the groups, the Saturday meetings will provide us with the opportunity to complete badges in one session, undertake longer hikes and generally have more time for activities. At Explorers, Andrew, Steve and Leigh have stepped back from helping regularly to concentrate on District roles and we have welcomed Louie, Liv and Ted as Leaders who all used to be Explorer Scouts themselves. There is space in both sections so please contact [email protected] to join, and we always have space for adult volunteers to join the adventure. .