Wednesday night cubs learned all about Bike Maintenance. We used bike pumps and spanners. After testing their bikes they all had fun ride around car park. We also practiced Grand Howl and invested our new Cub.

Wednesday night cubs learned all about Bike Maintenance. We used bike pumps and spanners. After testing their bikes they all had fun ride around car park. We also practiced Grand Howl and invested our new Cub.
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.
This week it wasn’t just the Cubs welcomed into the scouting family, Anne (Bagheera) who has been helping Jonny (Akela) as the the Assistant Cub Leader also recited the Scout Law and Promise and was formally Invested by Kevin, the Group Scout Leader at the Cubs Investiture ceremony. Anne has also helped out with the Beavers section.
The group congratulates Anne on what is bound to be only the start of her Scouting journey. Well done!
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!
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.