Cub Scouts – 2 Night Camp at a Sheep Station in Metcalfe

/ Colin Yeung - Group Leader

March 22nd 2019 Cubs Scouts headed off to a Sheep Station in Metcalfe for 2 nights under canvas for Term 1 2019 Camp. Originally scheduled earlier in the term, we had to delay due to Bushfire Danger and high temperatures. The Camp  got underway Friday afternoon with cubs meeting at the hall and heading off in convoy.

Leaders in Attendance – Akela (Tim), Baloo (Will), Rama (Colin) and parent helpers Nick (first night), Sam (2nd night) and Simon on Saturday morning (First Aid Classes, Green + Red Level badges). Also thanks to Sarah and Craig for driving cubs up on Friday night and Harry and Michael for helping with Camp pull down on Sunday morning.

Driving into Camp site, Friday night through Sheep Country.

Driving into Camp site, Friday night through Sheep Country.

Friday night, tents set up and some quiet time by the fire.

Friday night, tents set up and some quiet time by the fire.

Breakfast preperation – Jack & Noah preparing to do mass scrambled eggs and baked beans.

Water! Cubs scoping out the area we camped in.

Water! Cubs scoping out the area we camped in.

View of the mess tent & campsite from the opposite bank.

View of the mess tent & campsite from the opposite bank.

Saturday morning First Aid Lesson from cub parent Simon, who is also a serving Ambulance Officer with Ambulance Victoria. The cubs attained their Level 1 Green and Level 2 Red badges with the mornings lessons.

Saturday morning First Aid Lesson from cub parent Simon, who is also a serving Ambulance Officer with Ambulance Victoria. The cubs attained their Level 1 Green and Level 2 Red badges with the mornings lessons.

Lunch - you have to cook it! Saturday lunchtime, Cubs here preparing their own camp fires which were checked by Cub Leaders for size, safety (rocks/clear area/water nearby) before they cooked their own hamburgers.

Lunch – you have to cook it! Saturday lunchtime, Cubs here preparing their own camp fires which were checked by Cub Leaders for size, safety (rocks/clear area/water nearby) before they cooked their own hamburgers.

Going for a swim

Going for a swim

The boys swum out to this tree for their own photo opportunity.

The boys swum out to this tree for their own photo opportunity.

2018 District Leadership Course – Cub Scouts

/ Colin Yeung - Group Leader

August 24th – 26th saw 35 Cub Scouts from across the district attend the 2018 Leadership Course at Tree Tops in Riddells Creek.

Open to Sixers, Seconds and Cubs with promise of leadership capability, the camp is held once a year with participants from Riddells Creek, Gisborne, Macedon, Woodend (1st & 2nd) and Romsey packs.

Attending from 2WSG were: Evie, Liam, Mitchell D, Lennox, Nell, Mitchell T, Noah accompanied by Tim (Akela) & Colin (Rama).

An action packed weekend of activities, reflections and discussion with other cubs and experienced leaders about what qualities, actions and traits good leaders have. Lots of interesting puzzles, challenges and new friendships.

Thanks to the parents who dropped off cubs, helped across the weekend and congratulations to those that attended.

Akela & Rama.

2WSG Newsletter – April 2018

/ Colin Yeung - Group Leader
2nd Woodend Scouts Newsletter – April 2018

Cubs
Cubs have had a great first term, making the most of the warm evenings. They’ve cycled the Domino Rail Trail in Trentham, canoed on Nursery Lake, and partied at the Pax Hill District Bushranger Camp! There’s been great hikes up Camel’s Hump organized by Isabelle, and a Grey Wolf Hike around Whipstick Loop in Blackwood organized by Harry. Not to mention the incredibly fun evening on Survival Night, where campfires were lit, jube castles built, and makeshift chariot races were won. Thanks to all of the Leaders for organizing an incredible first term. We have new Leaders appointed for the coming term who will start their training – thank you Tim, Nerissa, Colin and Will for stepping forward to become our new Cub leaders; allowing Gavin, Mark and Matt to move forward into new Scout leader roles in the coming months. Cubs resumes back
on Monday 16 April 5.30 – 7.00pm as usual.

 

Scouts
Scouts likewise have had a crazy and wonderful first term. They’ve participated in Clean Up Australia Day, and enjoyed the weather in Anglesea surfing and beach combing. They’ve worked on their badges and cords, and built and raced billy carts. A few experienced Top Gear where they drove cars, more billy carts and archery. Following on from the joint Survival Night with Cubs and Venturers, the Scouts loaded up their weapons and enjoyed paint ball in commando gear in Ballarat – thank you Heather for an awesome few months! Scouts resumes on April 16th from 7 –9pm – see you all there!

 

 

Venturers
Venturers this term have done a lot of planning for their Queen Scout. Following on from their successful 85km Gippsland Wilderness Trail Hike in January, they successfully completed the Tasmanian 75km Overland Track Hike this Easter. The weather looked highly unpredictable, but the Group was very organized with their gear and it was a huge success. Seven days of hiking was their longest hike to date with all food and gear on their backs. Looking forward to hearing what the Venturers plan for next term…

 

 

 

 

2WSG Newsletter – March 2018

/ Colin Yeung - Group Leader

A productive year so far…

An amazing start to the year for 2nd Woodend Scouts.  Our numbers have increased to 80 as more adventurous young people join our Group.

Cubs
So far our Cubs have enjoyed an active program riding the Domino Rail Trail from Trentham, canoeing on Nursery Lake in this stunning warm summer, and baking cakes in cardboard boxes and testing their survival skills building cubbies and shelters from  bark and logs deep  in the Wombat Forest.   They’ve hiked the Whipstick Loop in Blackwood for Harry’s Grey Wolf, and Camel’s Hump for Isabelle’s – and we’re only one month into the year!

Scouts

Scouts have worked hard this year to earn badges and cords, starting with last Sunday’s Clean up Australia Day along Five Mile Creek.     The kids have built billy carts, and a double A monkey bridge from scratch.   A  handful are looking forward to the Top Gear Camp next week where they race BMX, real cars, and more billy cart action as they drive hot laps.   Their main event this Summer has been the Surfing Camp down in Anglesea where they had lessons, and learnt environmental conservation of our beaches. Plans are now underway for the Scouts to work towards attending next January’s Jamboree from 3rd – 14th in South Australia.   A parent’s information night will be held on Wed 21st March at the Scout Hall 7.30pm.   It is an expensive camp, so ideas and parent helpers are needed to assist the kids to fundraise for this.     Registrations are now open and you can review this experience at:

https://scoutsvictoria.com.au/activities-events/events/scouts/australian-jamboree/

Venturers to date…

Venturers have lived the dream this Summer and hiked the Gippsland Coastal Walk – 45 kms of pristine isolated coastline.   They carried 5 days of food on their back, ,slept on the beach  and filled up on fresh water in the passing river estuaries.   It was a test of endurance, the heat causing the need to hike before the sun rose, an incredible experience.     Their focus now is on hiking Tasmania’s Overland Track this April over the course of 5 days and fundraising for this – with a sponsored mountain bike ride and barbeque this Saturday outside the Woodend Butchers.

2WSG Newsletter – November 2017

/ Colin Yeung - Group Leader

Venturers: 

This month has seen a group of our Venturers work at the Kyneton Show last weekend.  They raised quite a lot of money and this will go towards their 10 day hike through Gippsland over Summer, and the Overland Hike next Autumn. The Group also mountain biked at dusk in the Wombat Forest, and visited the incredible Sand Sculptures at Cope Williams Romsey, featuring a dozen international artists. This weekend sees the Group travel to Anglesea to learn to shoot and surf, hopefully not at the same time!
Scouts: 
Scouts have made use of this great weather and canoed, rafted and swam at the Reservoir at Macedon at dusk, and partied Halloween style making spider webs and decorating cup cakes. Gilweroo is a highlight of November and a large group of 2nd Woodenders participated in archery, abseiling, air rifle shooting, billycart racing and mudslide and sock racing! This weekend’s camp to Anglesea for surfing lessons looks like it will be postponed due to poor weather, but stay tuned for a new date.

Cubs

Cubs have been making the most of the improved weather this term with a range of adventurous and developmental activities. Our Monday night program has seen cubs learn about fire, with two nights of campfire building and cooking, and a walk to the CFA for more learning about fire awareness, including the obligatory soaking!
Green canoeing badges were earned at Nursery Lake on a classic summer evening that saw Jasper move up to scouts via a moving raft of cubs and canoes. Our medieval camp was a roaring success with an engaging trip to Kryal Castle where we enjoyed tremendous (and somewhat hilarious) displays of skill and bravery from adults in armour doing serious battle with shields and axes.
We will farewell Kaa (Mark) at the end of this term as he moves up to scouts to follow his daughter Lana. Thanks Kaa for your calm dependability and attention to detail in caring for all our cubs.

General Committee 

This month we’re reviewing our needs for new Leaders to join our Cub section, and also new members to help out more in fundraising, minute taking, transport. Our AGM called ARAP is next Monday 4th December and we welcome anyone interested in helping us out more to step forward. It’s a great Group with incredibly generous Leaders and helpers, but it’s not sustainable to rely on the same people each and every year. Please have a think how you can help more, enabling us to grow and remain vibrant.

Scout’s take out Top State Honours at Southhike

/ Colin Yeung - Group Leader

Each year 600 scouts from all over Victoria take part in Scouthike – a competition hike event over 2 nights and 2 days held in the State Forest near Tallarook.

This year 91 teams of scouts hiked between overnight bases, completing up to 24 challenge bases along the way, to score points for their team. Challenges include traditional scout activities such as mock emergencies to test first aid, tying poles together to construct bridges, lighting fires, camping out, survival, and navigation with maps and compass. Equal weighting in the scoring is also given to leadership and teamwork.

Junior learner teams are accompanied by a leader and hike only with day packs. Senior teams hike independently, carrying all their food and equipment, and are eligible to earn Gold, Silver and Bronze pennants depending on the scores they achieve. Each year, only 10 teams are awarded Gold pennants.

2nd Woodend Scouts fielded 3 teams this year – one learner and two competition teams. Both senior competition teams took out Gold Pennants, with one team achieving the highest score in the State out of all 91 teams competing!

Scouthike is a lot of fun and gives young people a great chance to work together with minimal adult supervision to build their confidence, leadership and resilience.

Scout’s Rock Climbing Camp

/ Colin Yeung - Group Leader

It all started on the Wednesday before camp – all budding climbers went to Gisborne hall for a safety briefing and knot tying instruction. As we drove to the hall we all thought “how boring, more knots!”

How wrong we were, we learnt how to fit harness, helmets, tie new knots, and then got to try out the belaying system on one of the Venturers from Gisborne with a rope hanging from their roof. We drove down to Mt Stapleton on Friday night – Macca’s on the way – “important camping food”, arriving about 10.30 in the rain, and then set up camp. Got to bed about mid night and maybe talked a bit longer.

The next Morning we had breakfast and fitted our harness and helmets and headed down to the rock climbing wall. There were 8 different grades of climbs all set up ready to go and the day could not have been better.

It didn’t look too challenging until you took your first couple of steps up the wall then it was a bit daunting. But the rock climbing team talked us though the climb and before we knew it we were half way up the wall. They even managed to get the most nervous scout climbing like spider kids.

We all learnt how to climb and belay and operate the prussic safety system. Every scout agreed this was a fantastic adrenalin rushing day we could not thank the climbing team enough.

On Sunday we hiked around the local area and saw all the spectacular scenery.

Lachlan Sutton
Patrol Leader, 2nd Woodend Scouts

2WSG Newsletter – October 2017

/ Colin Yeung - Group Leader

2nd Woodend Black Forest Scout Group Newsletter – October 2017

Venturers
Well done to the Venturers who donated their school holidays to work at this year’s Cuboree; Oscar, Richard, Lachie, and James – their efforts much appreciated by the Cubs. Dale has signed all our Venturers up to the Duke of Edinburgh Award Scheme so the kids are working to achieve this along with their Venturer Award and eventual Queen Scout Award.

This weekend sees 10 of them attend an intensive Leadership program, before they later paddle down the Glenelg River South Australia over the extend Cup weekend.

It helps when your Leader is a former canoe champion! We may have to put weights on him to slow him down! This is followed by the Shooting & Surfing Camp on 1st December 2017 – fantastic!

Kate & Jess participating on the Rail Trail…

Scouts
Our Scouts gathered over the school holidays to participate in the majestic Murray to Mountains Rail Trail – 100 kms of sealed roads between Wangarrata, Beechworth, Rutherglen, Bright and Wandidgong.

This term sees the Scouts enjoying the great outdoors with the Cohen Shield this weekend, followed by Gilweroo in Mt Martha on 17th November, and then a Surf Camp in Anglesea on 1st December.

Scouts times have changed for this term (Term 4 2017) and is now 6.30-8.30pm Mondays.

Scouting cycling adventure in North East Victoria

Cubs
13 Cubs from 2nd Woodend teamed up with cubs from New Gisborne, Macedon and Riddells Creek to enjoy a fantastic week under canvas at Cuboree. The Cubs embraced the action-packed program, including mud slides, catapult battles, Puffing Billy and awesome nightly entertainment in the outdoor amphitheatre.

The most wonderful aspect of Cuboree this year was the way in which our Cubs engaged with Cubs from other packs, and with the young people from different scouting sections – scouts, venturers and rovers – who each played a significant leadership role in delivering the event.

Pictured left are the Cubs with Victorian Chief Commissioner Brendan Watson.

A note from our Management Committee…
The coming 9 months will see considerable change in our Leader structure, with Mark, Matt and Gavin all leaving the Cub division and moving up to become Scout Leaders as their own children progress. Effectively this means by mid next year we will not have any Cub Leaders unless there are parents among you who will step forward and sign up either as Leaders or as registered parent helpers who are prepared to maintain the Cub section.

We have 30 cubs so out of that pool of adults it is not unreasonable to expect parents to step up. The transition will be gradual, with Mark finishing at the end of this year, Matt at the end of term one, and Gavin at the end of term two. Please consider this as a worthwhile option not only to participate more actively in this fabulous program with your child, but to also ensure the sustainability of our Group.

All enquiries should be made to Phil who greet you with open arms!