1st Woodcutts Scouts Home Page

The Order of the Boot
Over the weekend of the 9-10 March, 4 responsible young members of Woodcutts Explorers staffed a checkpoint for the annual district night hike - The Order of the Boot. The 4 young people set out before lunch to walk to their checkpoint where they set up camp for the night in readiness. The participants are split into teams of Boots (older Scouts) and Wellies (younger Scouts accompanied by a leader) to walk around the course. At each checkpoint they are set a task before they move on. Some teams liked the Woodcutts checkpoint so much that they visited it several times before finding their way to the next! Other teams struggled to find it at all. Eventually our Explorers were allowed to go to sleep at about 2am after the final group had successfully found their way to the next checkpoint. On Sunday morning they returned to their homes tired but satisfied with a job well done.

The Order of the Boot

Over the weekend of the 9-10 March, 4 responsible young members of Woodcutts Explorers staffed a checkpoint for the annual district night hike - The Order of the Boot.
The 4 young people set out before lunch to walk to their checkpoint where they set up camp for the night in readiness. The participants are split into teams of Boots (older Scouts) and Wellies (younger Scouts accompanied by a leader) to walk around the course. At each checkpoint they are set a task before they move on. Some teams liked the Woodcutts checkpoint so much that they visited it several times before finding their way to the next! Other teams struggled to find it at all. Eventually our Explorers were allowed to go to sleep at about 2am after the final group had successfully found their way to the next checkpoint. On Sunday morning they returned to their homes tired but satisfied with a job well done.

The return of Bob-a-Job! Scout Community Week (14-20 May)
Many of you will remember a Scout or Cub painting a fence, mowing a lawn or going shopping for a neighbour to raise money for the group in the days when it was still considered safe to allow young people to knock on doors and offer help. Post-decimalisation this was re-branded as Scout Job Week. Scout Community Week takes the best bits of Scout Job Week and offers sections, Groups and Districts the opportunity to design a fundraising project that delivers real benefits locally. If you have an idea for a project that would benefit our community and think that the Scouts could help, then we would love to hear from you. Please talk to any of the leaders or contact us using any of the links on this website.

The return of Bob-a-Job! Scout Community Week (14-20 May)

Many of you will remember a Scout or Cub painting a fence, mowing a lawn or going shopping for a neighbour to raise money for the group in the days when it was still considered safe to allow young people to knock on doors and offer help. Post-decimalisation this was re-branded as Scout Job Week.
Scout Community Week takes the best bits of Scout Job Week and offers sections, Groups and Districts the opportunity to design a fundraising project that delivers real benefits locally. If you have an idea for a project that would benefit our community and think that the Scouts could help, then we would love to hear from you. Please talk to any of the leaders or contact us using any of the links on this website.

1^st Woodcutts Needs You An appeal from John Curtis, Group Scout Leader
Since the opening of our New Headquarters most of the sections have seen a big increase in numbers, especially in the Beaver & Cub sections with 30 and 34 respectively. The Beaver section will shortly be down to Willow as the only qualified Leader as Clare Easton will be on maternity leave and therefore out of action for some considerable time. With the number of young people in the colony, Denise needs to have an Assistant Leader to support her in the running of the weekly programme and to take charge if she is unwell or is unable to attend. Although the Colony is lucky to have several occasional helpers, some will be off to university in the not too distant future. Without an assistant Leader I may find myself in the difficult position of having to ask Willow not to take in anymore members and to do away with the waiting list. It may even be necessary to reduce the size of the Colony. The Cub section has a total of three Leaders but is desperate for occasional helpers to assist them with carrying out their duties. The Scout and Explorer sections are OK for the moment but would never turn away any offers of help. The Scout Association’s view, and indeed our view at First Woodcutts, is never to deprive a child from taking part in the activities provided by Scouting and in achieving the updated aims set out by Baden Powell 104 years ago. I am appealing to all of you, whether Parents, Friends or members of the public to come forward and offer your services either as a Leader within First Woodcutts or as an occasional helper. If you wish to discuss this further please feel free to get in touch with me or any of the other Leaders. You can get our contact details either from the Downsman or from our website www.firstwoodcutts.org.uk. You may say “What is in it for me? I know that Leaders are unpaid.” As a Leader of some 50 years standing what I can promise you is that you will get a warm welcome from all within our group, great enjoyment in taking part in the running of the activities and great satisfaction in seeing the youngsters enjoying themselves and achieving their goals. Thank you for taking the time to read this. Yours in Scouting John Curtis (GSL)

1^st Woodcutts Needs You
An appeal from John Curtis, Group Scout Leader

Since the opening of our New Headquarters most of the sections have seen a big increase in numbers, especially in the Beaver & Cub sections with 30 and 34 respectively. The Beaver section will shortly be down to Willow as the only qualified Leader as Clare Easton will be on maternity leave and therefore out of action for some considerable time. With the number of young people in the colony, Denise needs to have an Assistant Leader to support her in the running of the weekly programme and to take charge if she is unwell or is unable to attend. Although the Colony is lucky to have several occasional helpers, some will be off to university in the not too distant future. Without an assistant Leader I may find myself in the difficult position of having to ask Willow not to take in anymore members and to do away with the waiting list. It may even be necessary to reduce the size of the Colony.
The Cub section has a total of three Leaders but is desperate for occasional helpers to assist them with carrying out their duties.
The Scout and Explorer sections are OK for the moment but would never turn away any offers of help.
The Scout Association’s view, and indeed our view at First Woodcutts, is never to deprive a child from taking part in the activities provided by Scouting and in achieving the updated aims set out by Baden Powell 104 years ago.
I am appealing to all of you, whether Parents, Friends or members of the public to come forward and offer your services either as a Leader within First Woodcutts or as an occasional helper. If you wish to discuss this further please feel free to get in touch with me or any of the other Leaders. You can get our contact details either from the Downsman or from our website www.firstwoodcutts.org.uk. You may say “What is in it for me? I know that Leaders are unpaid.” As a Leader of some 50 years standing what I can promise you is that you will get a warm welcome from all within our group, great enjoyment in taking part in the running of the activities and great satisfaction in seeing the youngsters enjoying themselves and achieving their goals.
Thank you for taking the time to read this.
Yours in Scouting
John Curtis (GSL)

Fundraising
Many thanks to all those who attended and supported our recent fundraising events. - The dinner dance in October was a fun evening held in the Village Hall. Special thanks to Carolyne & Neil Bowes and Ann Cullen for organizing the food, to Pearl James for the raffle and to Alec James and his friends who provided the musical entertainment, and finally to Denise Turner for the decorations. Also the Explorers who came along very smartly turned out and helped by serving and clearing the food deserve a mention. - The Fireworks Spectacular seems to be more popular each year. Once again the weather was kind to us and after a horrible week the Saturday was clear and dry. Many thanks to the 45 or more people who assisted on the day and the hundreds who attended.

We are most grateful for the support that we receive from the community. As you all know, until recently most of the funds have gone towards the HQ Rebuild fund. However, we continue to need to raise funds to maintain the HQ and the grounds, to buy equipment and to cover costs such as insurance and heating. You can help us by simply doing your online shopping via the Easyfundraising site. It will not cost you a penny more and may even save you some money. Shop directly online with the retailer as you would normally, but if you sign up to http://www.easyfundraising.org.uk/causes/woodcuttsscouts for free and use the links on the easyfundraising site to take you to the retailer, then a percentage of whatever you spend comes directly to us at no extra cost to yourself.

1^st Woodcutts Scouts are based just outside Sixpenny Handley in Dorset; they are the foremost providers of youth activities in the area. The group has Explorers, Scouts, Cubs and Beavers sections with a total of over 80 members from North East Dorset and the Chalke Valley in Wiltshire.
The group was originally founded on 8^th March 1957 by our existing Group Scout Leader, John Curtis, and meets at the HQ in Woodcutts which has plenty of space for scouting activities.

If you would like to find out more about Scouting in Woodcutts and Sixpenny Handley, then please contact (Group Scout Leader), (Explorers Leader), (Scout Leader), (Cub Scout Leader) or (Beaver Scout Leader). Phone numbers can be found in any printed edition of The Downsman.

For more information on Scouting, please visit The Scout Association Portal

Next Committee Meeting
at the 1st Woodcutts Scout HQ
All welcome to attend