Categories
News

Founders Day

Ballymoney Cubs and Scouts joined other members of the association as well as members from Scouting Ireland to celebrate Founders Day last Sunday 24th February.
Founders Day celebrates the birth of Baden Powell (22nd February 1857) the founder of Scouting.
This year a special Parade and Scouts Own took place in Londonderry as the city is celebrating its year as the City of Culture. Over 1400 Scouts from County Londonderry and County Donegal paraded through the city and were warmly welcomed by the residents; the parade crossed the peace bridge and finished with a Scouts Own in the newly erected events tent. All participants received a commemorative scarf and woggle which can be worn for the next month.
IMG_1169 IMG_1160 IMG_1167
 

Categories
Camps News

Ballymoney Scout Group Join Coleraine District at the Jubilee Camp

Bad weather and flooding didn’t stop Ballymoney Scout Group from having an amazing time at the Coleraine District Jubilee Camp on the 22nd – 24th June. A last minute change of venue to Castlerock, where Hezlett Primary School and The Peter Thompson Hall came to the rescue, allowed almost 300 young people and adults to celebrate in style. Saturday saw a slightly brighter day which allowed all the activities to go ahead.

Explorers were tasked with making their way to Coleraine (having been dropped off at random points in the area). Along the way they had a list of tasks to complete, including cooking food with a stranger and finding a rubber duck.
The Scouts enjoyed a number of activities including archery, climbing, demolition assault course, laser tag as well as a short hike. The Cubs enjoyed miniature raft building, climbing, a nature ramble, and an obstacle course. Shani Steenson a mother of one of the cubs and a helper over the weekend said “it is great to see everyone mixing together and enjoying themselves even the adults had a go at the activities”.

 
 
 
 
 
 
The Beavers arrived Saturday lunch time and spent the afternoon enjoying beach games, before joining the Scouts and Cubs for a fair and then a campfire sing song. After a night to recover more games and crafts were enjoyed by all on Sunday morning before a Scouts Own led by the young people and attended by the Lord Lieutenant of County Londonderry.
The whole weekend was a great success and enjoyed by all. The young people are already looking forward to the next Coleraine District events for their sections when they will meet up with all their new friends again.

Categories
Camps News

Ballymoney Scouts Meet Chief Scout, Bear Grylls

On Saturday 19th May 2012 Chief Scout Bear Grylls took to the air to meet almost 4,000 Scouts from Northern Ireland at a series of events in Clandeboye, the Ulster Folk and Transport Museum and Crawfordsburn Scout Centre.
Ballymoney Scouts took part in an overnight survival camp at the Clandeboye estate, where they slept out in basic shelters that they made themselves and ate under the stars.
In the morning they took part in various survival skills including making and using a bow drill to light the cooking fire, filtering water through a sock and making camp firelighters.
When Bear arrived the scouts got the chance to meet with him and show off the skills they had learnt.
The event was one of a number that Bear visited in Northern Ireland and Scotland at the weekend.  
The tour is part of his mission to encourage more adults to volunteer for Scouting, as well as celebrate the important role of Scouting in Northern Ireland and the UK as a whole.  The journey comes as part of his plan to visit the whole of the UK during his term as Chief Scout, having previously visited many parts of England.
The weekend’s events showed what Scouting is all about, offering thousands of young people the opportunity to take part in adventure in the company of peers and trusted adults. The Scout Association is the largest co-educational youth Movement in the country. Recent figures have shown that membership has passed the 525,000 mark in the UK, with almost 10,000 members in Northern Ireland.
However, the Movement is in desperate need of more adult volunteers to ensure that more young people can join the adventure.
Bear Grylls, Chief Scout, says: “It was great to visit Scouts in Northern Ireland. At every event I go to, I know I’ll meet young people taking part in the adventure that Scouting provides. It’s crucial though that more adults sign up as volunteers, to ensure that all young people have the opportunity to join.”
If you are interesting in volunteering with Ballymoney Scouts please contact the Kevin, Group Scout Leader, on 0777 563 2415

More About Scouting:

  • The Scout Association was founded on 1st August 1907.
  • Adventure is at the core of Scouting, and the Association passionately believes in helping their members fulfil their full physical, intellectual social and spiritual potentials by working in teams, learning by doing and thinking for themselves.
  • Over 200 activities are offered by Scouting around the UK, made possible by the efforts of more than 94,000 volunteer leaders. This has helped make Scouting the largest co-educational youth Movement in the country.
  • One of the challenges that the Scout Movement faces is finding more volunteers to plug the current gap.
  • Adults working in Scouting contribute in excess of 364 million hours of voluntary work each year to their local communities.
  • The number of volunteers working for Scouting is bigger than the combined workforces of the BBC (24,000) and McDonalds (67,000) put together.
  • Worldwide Scouting has 28 million members both male and female and operates in nearly every country in the world.
Categories
News

Community Clean-Up

Community Clean up 3rd December
As part of the ongoing Environment Partnership Award there is a community clean up at Macosquin on Saturday 3rd December. Scouts and Explorers (and parents who wish to help) should meet at the Scout Hall at 10am. You should be back by 1-1.30pm. Come in old clothes, boots or wellies and waterproof coats.
These clean ups are organised with local community groups and the PSNI community officers.
The more people that come along the quicker the morning goes. The recent clean up at Greenmount in Coleraine was very effective with a wall of black bags being created!

This activity also counts towards the Community Challenge Award for Scouts and Millennium Volunteer hours for Explorers, it can also be used towards DoE and Explorer Chief Scout Awards for volunteering.