SCOUTS: Fred Morgan and Wendy Havers have recently been presented with their Wood Badge, it has been reported by Don Norris, district secretary of Monmouthshire Scouts.

A “grand night” was had by all those who attended and although the disco was rather loud and was making conversation difficult “there was some relief for the more mature persons who were able to chat in the lounge bar.”

The DAFDA award for Monmouthshire went to Christine Hands for all the work she has done for scouting. The development of young people’s leadership skills in “a safe and supportive environment” continues to be encouraged. To maintain this, resources to support peer leadership, such as sixers and patrol leaders, has been updated.

Mr Norris points out that the resources have been developed in consultation with young people and adult volunteers.This includes support guide for cub sixers, support guide for patrol leaders, guidance for all sections on developing leadership in young people, an optional idea of peer leadership in the Beaver section with yellow badge stripes and a top tips poster available to support the initiative.The resources can now be viewed online.

Mr Norris points out that Scout Active Support allows people to give their time to scouting on a flexible basis, although people can still be involved in scouting without the full-time commitment of being a leader. It provides a resource for managers of local scouting including group scout leaders, district commissioners and county/area commissioners “who can use it in which way is required.”

Monmouthshire Scout District have a very active and supportive group (Fellowship) who provide assistance at district events. Group members assist at the cub quiz, operation nightmare, swimming gala among others. They also hold their own social events and meetings, and if anyone would like to support scouting or know someone who would like to support scouting can contact Alan Llewellyn on peelerscott@btinternet.com.

The standard of the district heat of the cub cooking competition, held at Abergavenny scout hall, was very high and the menus varied from chilli to curry to pasta, and the tables were attractively laid out. Leaders and cubs must have given a lot of time in the preparation and training and many parents could not believe that their children were able to lift some of the pots and pans, while some were even keen to have a taste of the spoils, reports Mr Norris.

“Fortunately, the fire brigade were not called out but towards the end of the cooking time the smoke alarm went off, but that was only because of the hot steam rising,” reports Mr Norris.

The winners were Raglan Yellow Six with 53 points, Abergavenny second with 52 points and Raglan Little Chefs third with 51 points.  

The annual district cub quiz attracted five cub packs with a total of seven teams and the standard was high.The winners were Raglanosorus, with Raglan Warriors second and Wyesham Winners in third place.  

More information can be found on the scout website.

Abergavenny
Don Chambers
1936@talktalk.net