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Category: News
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Cubs go Canoeing
Ballymoney cubs enjoyed an evening canoeing in Kilrea. A great time was had by all, and thankfully no one got too wet!
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Table Quiz
TABLE QUIZ
Be Prepared ……. to have…….FUN !!!
Support Ballymoney Scout Group.
Join us at BALLYMONEY RUGBY CLUB
on Friday 5th June 2015, at 7.30pm
£5 per person/ £25 team (max 6)
Supper included.
Speak to leaders for tickets and details
All children should supply a small prize for tombola.
Cubs held their big camp at Crawfordsburn Scout Centre this month. There were loads of activities including Crate building, Bouldering, assault courses and teambuilding games.
Already looking forward to the next camp!!
After winning the District heats, Ballymoney Cubs took to Stormont to compete in the Northern Ireland Quiz Challenge finals 2015. The competition was very tough with twenty five teams and one hundred children participating. The Ballymoney team consisting of Luke, Simon, Wade and Luca put up an amazing fight and finished on a brilliant third place beating twenty one district finalists teams.
It was a truly superb effort put in by the boys and the jumping of joy from all of us when Ballymoney Cubs was awarded third place.
Before the quiz started we were all given a tour of Stormont building and learned some very interesting facts.
“Did you know Stormont was exactly 365ft wide, one foot for everyday of the year?”
“Stormont has six floors and six pillars at the entrance, one for each county in Northern Ireland”
Once the tour was finished the parents / leaders were separated from the children and took part in an adult version of the quiz. Let’s just say the kids did so much better than the parents / leaders!
A big thank-you is owed to Anne and Rebecca for making sure everything went to plan and the kids arrived on time, and a big congratulation again to Luke, Simon, Wade, Luca. Hope you are all enjoying your prizes!
The cubs went to Woodhall Residential centre this weekend and undertook a wide range of activities working towards their challenge awards.
Outdoors they zoomed down ziplines, (Kaa was quickest of the Leaders…) skipped by numbers (much much harder than it sounds!) Did human Jenga on crates (congrats to Baggys team… ) High Ropes…. leading to the leap of faith – Akela had none and bailed at the top of the ladder….And Archery… Robin Hood has nothing on the Ballymunion Cubbies….. Shere Khan and Baggy both made the top and leaped but the tigers tail must’ve been scalded as he did it in record time!
Indoors was game show night, ‘Mang’ Edwards hosted Deal or No Deal where everyone one a prize.. and Blankety Blank was a hit as well… After supper off to dreamland the groups worked on their Ballymoney Cubs Got Talent piece for the morning.
Breakfast down and the talent show began! everyone did their best and thoroughly entertained the judges.
Many Thanks to Aubrey, Janet and John at Woodhall and Baggy, Mang, Shere Khan and Kaa of the Cubs Leadership team – special thanks to Mang for the work that went into the Game shows.
Well done Cubs…. lets get ready for the next one!
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Scouts County Archery Competition
This weekend saw Ballymoney host the County Archery Competition. A fierce battle took place over 10 rounds with all the teams getting ranked and then entering an elimination round.
1st Cookstown took the overall honours (hearty congratulations) and will now go forward to the Northern Ireland shoot, along with the second and third place teams.
Out thanks go to Chris and Mark of the Causeway Company of Archers for providing an excellent shoot for the scouts.
Last weekend the Scouts and Explorers packed up and headed off in the minibus for their winter weekend away at Dunluce Guide House. Once there, after setting up the hostel and unloading all the goodies brought by the Tesco delivery van, everything was set for a great weekend ahead.
On Saturday the Scouts headed off for various hikes around the North Coast. This allowed all participants to use and improve their map reading skills, as they each took turns to lead the group on the hike. Meanwhile the explorers went biking in the dunes. On returning to hostel, we welcomed two new scouts, four explorers and a leader, with their investiture ceremony taking place while abseiling the cliffs of Dunluce Castle. On Saturday evening everyone enjoyed a delicious Christmas dinner cooked this year by the explorers. This was followed by party games, including the After Eight Challenge, and ‘IbbleDibble’. After a leisurely breakfast on Sunday morning the Scouts headed out to complete an incident hike, including stretcher rescue on the cliffs, blind travail and dismantling a bomb. The weekend came to a close on Sunday afternoon when it was time to pack up and return to the scout hall. We are all looking forward to our next adventure! We would like to thank Carolyn, Trevor and Sarah for the goodies, and Helen, Jeremy and Sarah who joined us for dinner on Saturday.
Shere Khans Christmas camp.. This year cubs joined up with beavers and started their Xmas camp with a trip to the millennium forum to watch jack and the beanstalk (oh no they didn’t..Lol) Once back at the guide house pass the pudding, wafting and flaffing in feeding frenzy, pass the pudding and card making were the order of the day. Mangs mighty spaghetti bolognese fueled the remainder of the games and following supper the Santa team (ably assisted by Explorer George) were ahead on points…(explorer Peters team were sooooo close) Then Santa visited and handed out goodies! the night finished off with a movie on the big screen.. Next day baggy provided the breakfast of all cub champions -waffles! More games, including the new favourite…. Table top air pingpong hockey…. Fun was had by all and Akela wants to pass his thanks on to the Cubs leadership team, Shere Khan, Kaa, Mang and the invaluable brains behind the games and silent leader… Mrs Shere Khan! Cubs all went home with Smartie tubes to collect 20ps over Christmas, good luck. PS… Santa team won reindeer candy canes and the snowmen team took an admirable silver place and got canes for their trees….
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Beavers make Poppies
Ballymoney beavers…….beavers paying their respect to fallen soldiers by making poppies and saying a prayer.
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Remembrance Day Parade
All sections of the group joined the local Remembrance Day Parade on Sunday, and attended the subsequent service at First Ballymoney Presbyterian Church.
This parade has grown in recent years and it was good to see all the other youth organisations out on the day. Scouting was represented by both Ballymoney Scout group and 4th Antrim Scouts.
Earlier that day the Scouts and Explorers took the honour of laying the wreath at the cenotaph.
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Arrangements for Remembrance Day Parade
The Remembrance Day Parade will take place on Sunday 09/11/2014. Following are the arrangements for the all sections:
13:45 Meeting at Townhead Street Car Park Dress – Full Uniform (Please bring a coat for wet weather)
13:45 Roll Call, head count and collect permission forms
The parade will go straight down the Main Street, turn left and go to First Ballymoney Presbyterian Church. The church service will last approximately 1 hour. On leaving the church, the parade will turn right, go up to the roundabout, proceed along Queen Street and Church Street. The parade will then dismiss on High Street.
16:45 Collection from High Street
It is important that your child attend this as it will complete their Promise Challenge Badge requirements. Please can you ensure that everyone attend. We will need parent helpers to walk alongside the Parade, you do not have to attend the church service but will be needed for the return Parade, you will probably want to be there to watch your child Parade and take some photographs anyway.
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Mang & Baggys Halloween party and BBQ!
Mang & Baggys Halloween party and BBQ!
Tonight was Halloween with Mang and Baggy. Games and bobbing and dangling doughnuts and skeletons and quizzes and pinyata were all happening in a very spooky hall. Where else but cubs would have a BBQ at the end of October. Very impressive costumes were on display.
A great night had by all.
Many thanks to Tesco for donating pumpkins for everyone and to McAtamneys for helping with the BBQ goodies.
No cubs next week, see you all on Remembrance Sunday.
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Return of Cubs
Cubs are back with a mission! Starting off the promise badge with promise and law relays, cubs showed off their best dance moves and raced against each other to make the grade… Games and fun all-around.
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New Term for Beavers and Cubs
The first meeting of the new term for both Beavers and Cubs will be a registration evening. At these meetings the children and their parents will have the opportunity to meet some of the leaders, find out about our plans for the coming term, and ask any questions they may have.
Beavers should come to the Scout Hall on Tuesday 9th September at 7pm.
Cubs should come to the Scout Hall on Wednesday 10th September at 7pm.
Looking forward to seeing you all then!
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Macosquin Cleanup
The annual cleanup took place on Saturday, with Ballymoney scouts joining residents and the PSNI to help clean up the litter from the area. The reward for a hard mornings work was hotdogs kindly cooked by the residents.
This clean up works towards the scout’s community award.
The County skills camp took place over the weekend, with Ballymoney joining scouts from all over County Londonderry.
The scouts took part in different activities from knife and axe, pioneering and backwoods cooking.
At the end of a tiring weekend they were all awarded their knife and axe with a certificate presented by the D.C. Paul Meikle.
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Scouts take a dip
With the good weather around the scouts took the opportunity to head down to the beach for a quick dip. The water was cold but everyone thoroughly enjoyed themselves.
Cubs finished for another year and celebrated with a one night camp at Baggy Mansion following a trip to the Swimming Pool. BBQ’s, Brownies, Bouncy castles, Water Bombs and relays were the order of the evening with smores and campfires. Cubs learnt how to put away their tents and pack their kits, handle and care for a python! good fun all round – See you all in september! Thanks to Baggy and Barry for hosting, Kyle for bringing his snake, Mang for helping out and Shere Khan for providing Akela with a castle to sleep in….
Tonight was a busy evening at cubs, the first part of the meeting was Hosted by Pets at Home and cubs got to handle snakes, dragons and bunnies! as well as a variety of other furries… Great fun
We were visited by Tim Chamberlain, Akela from 3rd Bridgewater Cubs in Nova Scotia, Canada with whom we had exchanged letters last year. He gave the cubs an overview of their programme, discussed the similarities and held a Q&A session, he left us with some Souvenirs.
Tim also presented three of our cubs with their Chief Scout Silver award, the highest badge a cub scout can earn, they got the badge and a certificate signed by Bear Grylls, Chief Scout. Well done cubs!
13 Cubs from Ballymoney attended the NI Cubjam 14 in Crawfordsburn Scout Centre last weekend. It was an action packed 4 day trip, with three nights under Canvas. They were supported by 4 Leaders and 2 Helpers (5 leaders?- ;)) and Castlerock Cubs helped with the Catering.
There was archery, water parks, hikes, go-karting (which nearly ended Baggy!!), obstacle courses, new games, crafts, discos, backwoods cooking, campfires, compass trails (Shere Khan – you know what you did!!) and a fun was had by all. Many badges were achieved and everyones ready for the next one.
Many thanks to Mrs Shere Khan for the Banner, Kevin, Helen and their Scouts for helping with the camp pack up, Mrs Akela for the Plaque and Cub Brownies, Rebecca for her tuck shop and time, Niall for his time and humour, Baggy and Shere Khan for all their hard word and of course Cubs Newest leader – Rikki-Tikki-Tavi (Cuggles…) Also Ballymoney Council for helping us to buy tents. No-one could have had the weekend we all had without all your help and the cubs enthusiasm and effort.
Can parents bring in any surplus belongings they may have found in their cubs bags on wednesday? We’ll have a swap shop to get it all to the correct owners.
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Cubs at the Circus
The Mayor gave beavers and cubs tickets to see Tom Duffys circus on Friday night, despite short notice we had a great turnout and everyone had a ball. Sea lions, acrobats and jugglers and not to forget motorbikes in a cage!! Akela even had his head polished by a clown….
Many thanks to John Finlay for the tickets.
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Camp Skills Day
Saturday brought the scouts over to Kevin’s house for a day of camp skills including putting up tents, setting the site, collecting fire wood, using axes and bow saws, lighting fires with some backwoods cooking. Homemade cookies (thanks to Jake’s mum) were on hand for afternoon tea, as the Scouts and enjoyed the sunshine in between the showers. The scouts went out to Garvagh woods to look for silver birch and potential bivi sights (a bit more map work is needed I think).
Once back, supper was had (chocolate cake), flasks were sorted and gear packed for a short hike to the bivi site where a wide game was played and everyone would bed down for the night under the stars.
After a windy but dry night back down the hill for bacon butties, hot chocolate and a film.
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George Meets the Cubs
The cubs are getting ready to head away on their Cubjam in May, George a scout from Ballymoney went to meet the cubs and talk with them about Jamborees and the fact that he is attending the World Jamboree in Japan in 2015. The cubs asked George lots of questions and are all eager to go on their own jamboree.
The world jamboree is in 2015 and will be held in Japan, with the following world jamboree being held in North America in 2019, when many of the cubs will be eligible to join in the fun and the once in a life time experience.
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Cubjam Preparations
Last night cubs explored three different types of tent and got a quick taste of what the upcoming trip is going to be like – Jayne from Beavers and Rebecca our OH came along too, and we’ve discussed ideas for our campfire entertainment!
Next week we begin the Ballymoney Banner!!
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Scouts Climbing in Coleraine
This week the Scouts headed down to Coleraine Scout Hall to use their climbing wall.
With three routes set up everyone got the opportunity to test their skills on different difficulties as well as learn new skills such as belaying the other Scouts.
After everyone had finished their climb, the Scouts challenged Coleraine Scouts to a big game of dodge ball!! Chaos then descended, not sure anyone actually won!!
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Cubs Emergency Aid
Cubs emergency aid badge marathon continues…
On week two of the quest to do five, yes five! Staged emergency aid badges in 6 weeks cubs learnt diffrent types of slings and their uses. Unsuspecting adults got assigned broken limbs and handy first aiders before getting to go home too….
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Friday Night Is Pancake Night
Friday night saw the Scouts and Explorers taking up the challenge of cooking pancakes. Each patrol cooked their own pancakes and then had the choice of their fillings – chocolate spread, marshmallows, jam as well as the traditional lemon and sugar.
Once cleared away the pancake races started, I’m not sure anyone actually knows who won!!
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Friday Night Was Badge Night
Over the couple of months the Scouts and Explorers have been working steadily towards their badges, and Friday saw over 150 badges being awarded from Swimming, Master at Arms, Equestrian, Creative Challenge, Promise Challenge, Nights Away, Hikes Away and a Platinum Award.
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County Archery Competition
The scouts took part in this year’s County Archery Completion in teams of three they had 8 rounds each to get the highest score they possibly could. The winners this year were Limavady (hearty congratulations to them). Ballymoney are already planning next year’s comeback.
