Announcement to the parents & members of
2^nd Cork St. FinBarres Cathedral and the 6^th/47^th Cork Douglas Scout Groups

As you may already be aware the 2^nd Cork St. FinBarres Cathedral Scout Group recently moved from their hall in Dean Street to the John Slye Scout Hall in Douglas. The reason for the move was a lack of potential members in the Dean Street area, while Douglas Scout Group has a long waiting list.

St. FinBarres Cathedral Scout Group was set up in 1930 to provide Scouting for the Boys in the Cathedral Choir. Since then the group has maintained its link with the Cathedral and has used St. FinBarres Hall in Dean Street as its base. Douglas Scout Group was formed in 1951 and has been operating from its base in the John Slye Scout Hall Douglas since they began.

Following several months of discussion between a committee of council members from both groups, we are pleased and very proud to announce that an agreement to merge the 2^nd Cork St. FinBarres Cathedral and the 6^th/47^th Cork Douglas Scout Groups has been reached.

The long heritage of both groups will remain an important part of the new group going forward and we are confident that by completing this merger we can gain from the experience of both sets of leaders to create a strong group to provide Scouting for a larger number of youth members.

Over the summer we have been finalising our plans and will be holding a meeting towards the end of August to formally merge the two groups and to launch a new era of scouting in Douglas.

While all three section numbers (2^nd, 6th and 47^th) will be maintained the new group will be known as
‘The Douglas and St. FinBarres Scout Group’

The new group will have 3 Beaver Colonies, 3 Cub Packs, 3 Scout Troops, a Venture Unit and a Rover Crew active in Douglas. We will take in a number of new members from the Douglas waiting list starting in September to bring all our Sections up to strength.

These are exciting times for scouting and we hope that you will join us and support us in the adventure that lies ahead. We will keep you informed as we progress, we will also require setting up a Parent and Friends support group to help us manage and resource the new venture.

Yours in Scouting,

Conor Crowley                            Declan O’Shea
Group Leader                                                  Group Leader
Douglas Scout Group                                     St. FinBarres Cathedral Scout Group

Both of our Scout Sections (6th & 47th Cork) and our Venture Scout Section are holding their final regular weekly meetings of their Scouting year this week.

The 47th Cork Scouts meet tonight in Fota Scout Centre, the 6th Cork Scouts meet Wednesday night (29th June) in the John Slye Scout Hall and the Venture Scouts meet on Wednesday night (29th June) in the John Slye Scout Hall.

The next weekly meeting that will happen will be for our Scouts, Ventures, Rovers and Scouters attending Camp 2013.

Those going to Summer Camp will meet on a weekly basis for the month of July each Wednesday at 7pm starting on Wednesday July 3rd.

If you are going to Summer Camp you MUST attend these meetings, we’ll be getting to know one another from the different sections and discussing plans and activities for the 2 weeks away in August.

  Well done to our fabulous team in the Shield Competition at the weekend. We were thrilled to see how well ye made the site look and how well you took part in every task thrown at you over the busiest weekend in the scout calendar. We are well proud of the 7 of you!

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The Shield Patrol team build a prep table and dresser combo, an excellent dining table and seating, a very well constructed fireplace and a quad pod style gate sporting the 47th and 6th sings and the Douglas colours.
In between building a site, they built a raft in Inniscarra area, cooked two course test meal, ran a stall ( sponge throwing) and still managed to fit in a campfire sketch and other games and activities such as pie eating, cup stacking, feeling what;s in the bucket (scary lobster and worms etc!) and designed a Douglas flag and a Douglas shield that will be coming on many a camp as seo amach.
And the 47th were awarded with 3rd prize for the Indoor Inspection held earlier in the year (so well done all) and the 6th were awarded first in Orienteering and 3rd in the Survival Weekend, as well as having won the Inter Troop Quiz in December

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What a weekend! What a year!A big thank you to the John’s friend with the van for transporting our gear, and to Vickie and Shane for helping dismantle our site and pack the gear.  And a big HAND to John who cut his own hand.

Do you know how far away it now is to Summer Camp??

90 Days!!!!!!!!!

Wow, where does time go!!

Anyhow, we’ve been busy behind the scenes planning.  At this stage, we know the hostel we’re staying in & are working out sleeping plans.

We’re busy planning activities, canoeing, hiking, visiting Prage…… the list goes on!

What do YOU need to be doing at the moment?

The most important things you can do right now are:

• Make sure you have an up to date passport.  Nothing else will do!  You won’t be travelling with an ID card of any sort – it must be a passport.
• Apply for an EHIC card.  This is vital if you were to need any emergency care while abroad.  You can apply for one online at:  https://www.sspcrs.ie/portal/ehic/  More info about the card can be gotten HERE.
• Talk to your leaders about any outstanding camp fees.  We need to keep on top of them!

That’s about it.  As ever, any of the Scouter team will be delighted to help answer any queries you might have.

Keep an eye here on the website – it’s where you get the news first!

Roll on August…. :-)

The teams have been picked, the training has been completed so this weekend the teams from the 6th and the 47th Cork Scout sections are heading to the Fota Scout Centre for 7pm on this Friday, April 5th, for the weekend.

This is a truly survival weekend and the Scouts will be taking part in skills bases, sleeping in shelters that they’ve built themselves for a night and doing a lot for themselves.

Leaders have been preparing as much as possible but now it’s over to the Scouts to show what they’ve got.

Please click here to see directions via google-maps to the Fota Scout Centre

Yours In Scouting,

The Scout Section Leaders

St Patricks Day 2013

St. Patricks Day Mass

We are keeping with a Douglas Scout Group tradition going back many years this year and would appreciate the support from our members and their families in showing a strong turnout and letting the wider community see how great our numbers are now in Douglas Scouts.

There are 3 masses on Sunday, St. Patrick’s Day, in St. Columbas Church Douglas, the 9:30am, 11am and 12:15. The 11am mass on St. Patrick’s Day is traditionally as gaeilge and given the day that’s in it Douglas Scout Group will be attending this mass in full and perfect uniform.

ALL Scouts (Beavers, Cubs, Scouts, Ventures & Rovers) are requested to assemble in full uniform at the Scout Hall at 10:30am where we will then proceed to march together into the church for the 11am mass.

ANNUAL CAKE SALE 2013

Also on St. Patrick’s Day we will be holding our annual cake sale; we hope to benefit from as many customers as possible so we will be kicking off from 9:30am on the Sunday morning up until after the 12:15 mass (approx 1pm) This is where the friends and families of our members come in… WE NEED CAKES TO SALE… Can you bake us some or have some made for us? Please try your best and we’ll gladly sell them on the morning.

Cakes ready for sale can be brought down on Saturday afternoon to the Scout Hall from 4pm to 5pm where leaders will accept them and store them until the following morning and hopefully we’ll have enough to start selling at 9:30am after the first mass.

This year we are also doing something different; tea and coffee will be served to those who want to sit for a few minutes and have a cuppa with their cake that they just bought. So please tell your neighbours, friends and family that we’re looking for their support.

Bake a cake, buy a cake, have a cuppa and support Scouting in Douglas on St. Patrick’s Day 2013

• The South County Survival Challenge weekend is 5-7th in Fota scout centre.  Teams will sleep in tents on Friday night. On Saturday teams will spend half their day on site doing bases and half their day off site, doing bases/urban challenge, teams will also build a shelter, prepare breakfast, lunch, dinner and supper for their own team and take part in various team challenges throughout the weekend.  Backwoods Adventures skills badge will be earned over weekend.
• Cost is 30 euros  per scout. This covers camping, program and train tickets for the urban challenge and food.
• 4 per team and groups can enter as many teams as they like.
• Scouts will need usual weekend camping gear-esp warm clothes (see list for March 23rd weekend) and also a 6 foot stave and a survival bag (a large usually oraange plastic bag for emergencies -available in the Socut shop and other outdoor shops)

Let me know by Monday 18th if you want to go as I need to book in and pay a fee to  the County organiser.

Should be great craic

Niamh

Many thanks to those who took part on this great hike up Torc on Sunday 10th of February; Thanks to the leaders John Cleary and Niamh Fullam for leading the hike and showing the Scouts how it’s done!

The weather was in our favour for sure apart from the hail and snow fall once we got to the top but overall really good day for it. The cook out when we got to the end was excellent, nothing beats sausages cooked over a trangia.

Here are just a selection of pictures from the day; More will be added soon

Hi Scouts

We will be meeting at scout hall for 9.30. We should be back at hall for 5.30.  Please bring 7 euros for petrol.(6th scouts, double check with John at Wednesday’s meeting for more details)

Wear your warm, layered clothes, no jeans. and your neckerchief. (see list on earlier post)

You must have boots.  No boots/walking shoes or raingear, no hike for you!

See ya there.

Niamh

Douglas Group Fundraiser in February will be Ten Pin Bowling in the Planet in Blackpool on Sunday February 17th

We have two hour sessions booked for our Group, parents, friends and families are all invited to come along, play a game of bowling and support us in much needed fundraising.

Tickets will be €7 and we will talk about the selling of these tonight at the parents meeting.

More details will be available soon so tell your mates! Keep the date!