District Day

Today the members of Ware and District met at Christ Church School in Ware, to discuss the future of the District. We have had 100 years of very successful Scouting and so do we continue as we are or do we make changes?

Members of every Group in the district met and spent the day in numerous workshops outlining the future.

Rikki, the County Commissioner also attended and put forward his views. It was a long day, but a productive day.

We also learnt about Lochearnhead 2013. Will I be allowed to go?

I wonder what the next 100 years will bring?

There's a New Vicar in Town...

.....and last night I met him for the first time.

Apparently he was expecting me to attend the special service.

The Institution service of The Rev John Hookway was held last night at Christ Church Ware and 3rd Ware Leaders were invited to represent the Group because of our historical links with the church. Several Leaders, young people and their families are also regular members of the church.

With the Church Warden who is the father
of one of our past members
and former troop leader

 Several other Scouting and Guiding people attended and so there was a very visible uniformed presence, it made my heart swell!

The Explorers were on car parking duty before the service and refreshments afterwards and several took part in the service as sound crew, camera crew, in the band and making the welcome on behalf of the young people of the parish. They also attended the special service en masse.

The service was broadcast live on the Internet so those who could not attend could view it. I was even in part of the live streaming.

The camera coming in for a close up of me!

For those interested in such things, I am told that the service, which was taken by the Bishop of Hertford, dates back to the 9th Century and harks back to a time before Anglicisation, the BCP and the King James Bible.



In fact The Bishop and I became good friends. He seemed very interested in what I had to say!

As part of the service the Vicar is formally handed the Key to the church and gets to ring the bell. It is not often the bell is rung at Christ Church and so it was good to hear it.

It was a really good service with many people speaking warmly of the new Vicar and some rousing songs to sing. I was in good company and then right at the end I met one of our Beaver Scouts who was also there because his Mum is an ex-church warden and his Dad is a Governor at the school next door to the Church.

So that was my unique and interesting evening and it was good (to again) to visit the Church where our Group began. 

Tonight is AGM time - see you there!

Peter Geer winners!

The members of 3rd Ware who attended the parade

What a fantastic day! It all started with the Scouts meeting at Christ Church School and getting ready to take part in the community action. They were set the task of planting a display at the entrance to The Priory. There was a strict plan to follow and it will make an interesting display when it flowers. Make sure you go down and take a look, you will be pleasantly be surprised. You may like to know like to know we planted 1000 bedding plants in the "Centenary Bed". If we didn't get them all mixed up within a few weeks we should see a flowering tribute to the Centenary! If they did get mixed up we will describe it as an abstract!

Community work

Whilst they were doing this, Guides, Explorers, other Scout Troops and Leaders were all over town engaged in other community acts, from planting to cleaning to litter picking. Then it was back to the school for the service.

When they met in the school hall for their service, the rest of the Group joined other Cubs, Beavers, Brownies and Rainbows in Christ Church, Church Building. Here a service not only celebrated St. George but also included presentations  of the different things which had taken place in the District this year.

There were all manner of worthwhile activities from planting flowers with Ware in Bloom to our own fundraising for The Scouts in Gambia. I know I am biased but I thought our speakers presented their item very well.

Presentation in church

After the services the GSL invested our newest Leader and then we formed up ready to parade. It is always exciting to walk through the town and see how many people come out to witness the parade and today was no exception, the sun shone, we smiled and people waved!

Two Scouts, Rikki and me!

Once we reached the Priory the colour parties formed up at the front and the rest of us stood behind and listened to the speeches. We were privileged this year to have Rikki, the Scout County Commissioner attend our celebration and make a speech. I had got to meet him earlier in the day when we were gardening!

Can you see me?

After every section had renewed their promise David Geer gave a short speech and got ready to present the Peter Geer trophy. This is an award  which is presented every year to the Scout Group which has, percentage wise, had the most members take part in District events. It holds special meaning to 3rd Ware because Peter is an ex 3rd Ware Leader and his son attended our Group.

After his death his family instigated the award based on Peter’s philosophy that although it is great to win, taking part and making the most of the opportunities given is just as important, and our Group still stand by that and it is a trophy we have been fortunate to win several times in the past.

Eyes Right

So it was with great delight and surprise that we won again this year! Even Peter’s son seemed thrilled that his old Group had won it in their centenary year. Everyone in the Group and their parents gave a loud cheer and it was smiles all round.

After the presentations we all arranged ourselves for our annual Group photograph and then the Young People, who all still seemed to be smiling, went home.

Thank you to all the Young People and Leaders who represented us today and have turned out over the past 12 months to make us the most active Group in the District.

St.George's Day parade and service

click on picture to make it bigger and easier to read

I look forward to seeing everyone there later on.

Beavers and Cubs - unless you have been told otherwise by your own section leader, please meet at 2.30pm in Christ Church School playground entering via the Bowling Road gate.

Scouts - meet at Christ church School at 12 o'clock midday (entering via the Bowling Road gate) wearing clothes you do not mind getting dirty and with your clean uniform and black shoes in a bag clearly marked with your name.

Please bring money for the collection.

School days

Yesterday I went to Christ Church School in Ware. I do have to confess that I have been here before because I often use it as my rendezvous point when attending activities with the young people at 3rd Ware. Many of our members go to this school and so it is an easy place to meet them to go home and then get taken to an event.

However yesterday was different. When we arrived at school all was as usual and I assisted the teacher in setting up the classroom and getting ready for school to begin and then she sat me on her chair and the class arrived. So far so good…but I was beginning to wonder why I was there.

Then we went to assembly and what did I see, well standing out amongst the red sweatshirts of the school uniform was that familiar Beaver blue! Sprinkled all over the hall were “Beaver Scouts”. There they sat in their uniforms and great bananas I spotted some of the familiar black and green neck scarves! Something exciting must be happening.

The acting deputy head explained that today was the official 25th birthday of the Beaver Scouts joining the Scout Association and in recognition of this anyone who was a Beaver had been invited to wear their uniform to school. As well as 3rd Ware, Great Amwell, 5th Ware and 2nd Ware were represented.

At the end of assembly we invited any of the Beavers, regardless of their colony, to visit me in McKee class and that set the tone of the day. We had a constant stream of Beaver visitors who wanted to chat to me, play with me and have me go to their classes to learn. They all also wanted their photograph taken with me. I felt a bit of a celebrity!

The girls from Great Amwell are obviously an academic lot because they were keen for me to join in with phonics and took me to their class. I spent time playing in the reception garden and in the afternoon visited Butterworth class who had a mix of Beavers from all the colonies. Iona and Jack were pleased to see me in school and both said they loved meeting me at the different activities and thought I was fantastic…my head was swelling a bit at that point!

Marcus, Toby, Jake and one of their friends from 2nd Ware tried to confuse me (easily done) when they turned up to play with me but were dressed as evacuee children with luggage labels pinned to them. I thought we were in a time warp, but Jake explained they were rehearsing their school play and had hurried from the rehearsal to the classroom to spend some time with me before they had to go back – phew – next time they came they put their Group scarves on to help me out!

Several of the adults in the school are also involved in Scouting, in one way or another, and Vikki Flaum who works in the school office came down to see me because she is a member of 2nd Hoddesdon Beavers. Otter, one of our own leaders, also works at school and it was she who instigated this uniform day.

During Golden time I was in Mckee class again and lo and behold some Beavers turn up to paint and dress up. I had a great time watching them.

The Beavers from 3rd Ware were very excited to see me in school and were very keen to share my time with their friends from other Groups. I had met many of these Beavers before at the Sleepover or the handicraft competition.

The day was a very positive endorsement of Scouting by one school and the Beavers were proud to show off their uniforms and explain their badges to anyone who asked and some who didn’t!

Thanks to the Beavers who helped write this with me.