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!
Tag: badges
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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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Master at Arms Badge
The Scouts and Explorers visited Causeway Company of Archers to complete their Master at Arms badge.
There are three main requirements to complete the badge.
- The Scouts attend regular training sessions and that they show improvement in their skills.
- The Scouts know the safety rules associated with the activity and demonstrate their use
- That they take part in a competition
After the safety talk and a few practice rounds, an Olympic Challenge got underway, which was hotly contested completion eventually won by Jack (congratulations Jack). During this completion Chris and Mark questioned the scouts on safety, and equipment.
The last session of the evening was the individual knock out competitions, where everyone had three lives and target to aim for, the problem was that every round the target reduced and so did the lives.
Everyone who attended completed the badge.
Out thanks go to Chris and Mark of the Causeway Company of Archers for providing an excellent evening for the scouts.
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Bumper badge night for Cubs
After a month or two of varied nights cubs have completed no less than 11 badges and worked steadily towards achieving their Chief Scout Silver!
Finishing off the evening with “how to be a good passenger” was entertaining. Who knew that we had so many budding drivers!!
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Swimming Badges
The scouts visited Ballymoney leisure centre on Friday to start their staged swimming awards, everyone who attended completed level 1 with most completing level 2 as well. Our thanks go out to all at Ballymoney leisure centre for accommodating us.
The explorers decided it was time that they got their feet wet with a visit to Lisburn Leisure Pool, not much swimming was done but they all had fun playing on the slides and chutes, they finished off their evening with the traditional post swim fare of KFC.
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Cubs visit the Library
Cubs visited Ballymoney library tonight and were guided by Leah through the book loaning service from alphabetical to the dewey decimal system. She read them stories and had them working for their book reading badge.
She explained there had been a library in ballymoney for over 170 year. Before planes and phones!!
Many thanks to the library and their staff for hosting us.
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Cubs Investiture
Ballymoney Scout Group welcomed several new cubs to the worldwide family of scouting tonight. They join over 130000 cubs in the uk and 23 million scouts actoss the world.
They recited their promise and law and have enough badges to kerp their adults busy all week!
Congratulations to you all.
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Beavers & Cubs Return
Cubs and Beavers will continue their badge journey starting in September 2013.
Beavers have a registration night on the 3rd of September at 6.30pm. It will be a chance to meet the new leaders and discuss your beavers programme for the upcoming year.
Cubs return on the 11th of September at 6.45pm. Please note new extended running time to 8.15pm. There are some new forms to fill in and we’d be grateful if Parents / carers could speak with leaders at drop off / pick up time.
We look forward to seeing you then.
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Cubs at Ulster Aviation Society
Cubs, as the final part of their Air Activities Badge, went on a trip to the Ulster Aviation Society in Long Kesh on Saturday. They had the opportunity to see some restored aircraft, all with a connection to the old Long Kesh Airfield. Many aircraft where still under restoration – including one that they have been working on for 20 years! The entire collection is gathered and maintained by an enthusiastic group of volunteers and their enthusiasm was contagious. The cubs also had an opportunity to see the recreated Cold War alarm and monitoring stations and had a demonstration of just how ready NI was for WW3! The day was rounded off with a trip to Mcdonalds and sing songs on the big red bus (and the white one!)
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St George's Day Arrangements
Sunday 21st April is our annual St Georges Day Parade (Patron Saint of Scouting). This year Ballymoney is organising the District event.
We will be meeting at Townhead Street car park at 2:30pm, in full uniform (with all badges sewn on) and dark shoes (eg school shoes).
The parade will proceed through the town to a service in First Ballymoney Presbyterian Church. After the service we will parade back to the car park.
We also require parental support to marshal the parade – if you might be able to help please contact Kevin or your section leader.
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Pancake-crazy Beavers!
Tonight the Beavers went Pancake crazy. They played pancake games and made their very own Beaver pancakes. Also many of the Beavers received at least two badges including their experiment and creative activity badges as well as their friendship challenge badge. 
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Scouts and Explorers Winter Weekend
On Friday 23rd November 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 and Explorers 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. On returning to the hostel the Scouts and Explorers were joined by four Cubs who are about to come up from Cubs to Scouts. After hot chocolate and cake the young people undertook a number of challenges including building a free standing tower out of newspaper and following a blind trail.
The group then welcomed two new scouts with their investiture ceremony taking place in the grounds of Dunluce Castle. On Saturday evening everyone enjoyed a delicious Christmas dinner cooked by the patrol leaders and assistant patrol leaders. 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 first aid, building a fire off the ground and completing the invisible assault course. Some of the explorers went off biking down to the dunes.
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!
Two Explorers from Ballymoney recently joined the Belfast County Young Leader training weekend at Crawfordsburn. Conor and Daniel, who are both doing service with the Ballymoney Cubs for their Duke of Edinburgh and Chief Scout awards, travelled to Crawfordsburn on the 16th November for a packed weekend of classes and activities to develop their leadership skills. The weekend addressed a range of topics such as styles of leadership, dealing with challenging behaviour, scouting for young people with special needs and communication. It also provided an opportunity to get to know Explorer Young Leaders from a variety of groups in the Belfast and Down Counties and take part in a number of games and activities such as blind trails, climbing and duck-duck-goose.
All the Explorers have recently completed training on safeguarding as part of their programme in preparation for Young Leader roles within the Group and other youth organisations. Conor and Daniel are now starting their first of 4 missions to achieve the Young Leader Belt.
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Cubs Investiture Ceremony
This week many of our new cubs completed their Investiture ceremony. 
This is where they formally join the scouting family and are awarded their membership badge, joining approximately 28 million scouts worldwide.
The badge is presented at the Investiture ceremony when the new Cub Scout makes their Promise in front of the pack, parents and leaders. In Ballymoney we do the ceremony over our original wolf cubs flag.
To gain the membership badge there are the following requirements:
Know about the Cub Scout Pack:
Get to know the other members and leaders in your Six and Pack.
Find out about the ceremonies and traditions in your Pack.
Find out about the activities that your Pack does.
Know about joining your Pack:
Know and understand the Cub Scout Promise and Law and the rules in your Pack.
Know and understand the Cub Scout Motto, Sign, Salute and Handshake.
Know what to do at your Investiture.
Know the meanings of the badges you will receive.
Know the history of the family of Scouts and worldwide Scouting.
Congratulations to all our new members, this will hopefully only be the start of their badge collection!
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This week in Beavers
Emergency Aid
Tonight we continued to work on our Emergency aid badge. Unfortunately the Ambulance Service wasn’t able to attend but the Beavers all had a fun time learning some basic first aid and got lots of practice putting on bandages and dressings.
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Beavers Update
It has been a busy week for the Beavers. On Tuesday night we had our Investiture Ceremonies with the new Beavers receiving their badges and certificates. We also had a visit from Lynn who talked about the importance of The Poppy Appeal with members of the colony helping to make some poppies. Thanks to the Beavers who worked hard and their parents generous support we were able to present The Poppy Appeal a cheque for £221.15. The week came to a close with 3 Beavers laying a wreath at the morning service in Ballymoney followed by 28 of our Beavers attending the Remembrance Day Parade in the afternoon.
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This week at Beavers…
This week the Beavers started work on their Creative Badge whilst focusing on our Beaver Promise. A number of the Beavers that attended last year received a variety of badges, these included the outdoor challenge badge, adventure badge, nights away badge, Beaver sleepover badge and joining in awards. Two of the Beavers that are moving on to the Cubs also received their moving on certificates. Next week we start work on our Friendship Challenge.
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Bivi Night
We have a Bivi Night planned for Scouts and Explorers for Friday 9th March, meeting at 8pm at Kevin’s house, 72 Kilhoyle Road. (For directions and Bivi Night Kit List see the resources page)
We will complete some outdoor activities and then have supper, after which we will walk up the hill toward the Bivi stop, where we will spend the night. In the morning we will walk back to the house and have breakfast. All youngsters will be ready to be picked up at about 8:30am.
Please confirm your attendance with Kevin or Helen, and remember to bring a signed Health & Consent form.
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Beavers Badge Work
The Beavers are working on their Animal Friend badge from now until Easter.
Staff from ‘Pets at Home’ joined us last Tuesday bringing guinea pigs, hamster rabbits and a dog.
On the 6th March we are going to the’ Pets at Home’ store, and on 13th March Karen Mitchell (Dog Warden from BBC) will be giving us a talk in the hall.
On 20th March, Karen & Darryl from ‘Pets at Home’ are joining us again to present badges, and on that date 4 new Beavers will be invested.
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Explorer and Network 10th Birthday Badge
Explorer and Network 10th Birthday Badge
To celebrate the tenth anniversary of the introduction of the Explorer Scout and Scout Network sections, we’re releasing a special occasional badge, chosen by members of the Movement.
After a month of voting, the deadline has now passed, and Explorers and Network members have selected their favourite from a choice of three very different badges.
Wear it with pride
Emma Saunders, Programme and Development for Scout Network said:
‘The badge comprises the green of the Explorer section and the grey of Network. It also captures the fun and adventure of both sections while leaving no-one in any doubt about what birthday we’re celebrating. I hope Explorer Scouts, Network members and their leaders enjoy wearing the badge on their uniforms throughout 2012.’
Ten years of spectacular growth
There’s plenty for us to celebrate in 2012.
Since 2002, the number of 14 to 25-year-olds in Scouting has soared. Our 2011 census counted 36,346 Explorer Scouts (including 9,030 Young Leaders) and 4,885 Scout Network members. This adds up to more than double the 19,245 Venture Scouts recorded in 2001.
The winning badge will be available to buy from Scout Shops in January. It is to be worn above the Membership Award on the left side, where all occasional badges go.
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Scout badges and awards
Scout badges and awards
There is a range of badges and awards available to young people in the Scout Section.
Activity badges
Many of the badges available are activity badges, which allow Scouts to show their progress in existing pursuits, but also to try all kinds of new things and form new interests.
Challenge awards
Gaining a challenge badge involves accomplishing a number of more ambitious tasks within the Troop or community. There are several challenge badges across a number of themes, from the physical and outdoorsy to challenges dealing with the local community or issues connected with the Scouting world.
Core badges
In addition, there are a number of core badges, obtained upon joining or moving on from the Troop, or for time spent in the Scouting movement.
Activity packs
Some activity badges are sponsored by outside companies, and these companies often provide extra exciting resource packs to help Scouts towards gaining their badges.
Find out more here…