Category: Wenvoe Scouts
Welcome to the New Beavers
Welcome to our new 1st Wenvoe Beavers!
In October we invested eight new Beavers into 1st Wenvoe's Beaver colony. They all made their promise and were awarded their purple membership badge and welcomed to the group. In just half a term three Beavers have been awarded their 'three nights away' badge and a further four their 'one night away' badge. These were for taking part in the summer district family weekend camp and the district Beaver sleep-over, where they completed their 'space' badge. They watched a short video of Major Tim Peake welcoming them, as a new Scout Ambassador. The whole colony were also awarded their 'health and fitness' badge in October. Well done all Beavers, leaders and assistants for your hard work this term!
Cub Team Challenge
Penarth and District Cub Team Challenge
Congratulations to our four Cubs from 1st Wenvoe who all completed the District Cub Team Challenge event in October. The Cubs had to work in teams, practise their communication skills, solve problems and take the lead in a series of challenges. These included bean bag races, land-curling, string shapes, a 'crab football' mini tournament, building spaghetti and marshmallow towers, 'banana surgery' and bamboo catapults.
The Cubs all had a great time! These activities all count towards their Team Leader and Teamwork Challenge awards. The leaders all had fun running the activities and watching the Cubs making friends and working together to succeed. Well done to all involved!
For more information about 1st Wenvoe Scout Group please contact Tori Thomas, Group Scout Leader,
by email: 1stWenvoe@ penarthanddistrict.org.uk or have a look at our district Facebook page: www.facebook.com/penarthanddistrict.
Scout Post 2017
Wenvoe Scout Group are once again taking part in the Cardiff and Vale Scout Post. The stamps, are now available and remain at 25p each. Please buy your stamps locally, this helps support the 1st Wenvoe Scout Group. See the advert below for local stamp availability, post box locations and the areas covered by the Scout Xmas mail service.
The last day for posting this year is
Monday 4th December.
WHY NOT LEND A HAND
The Scout Post requires adult support to carry out the majority of work involved. Each evening of the sorting week we need people to help sort cards into the different areas. Our sorting office is set up in the Community Centre leisure room. We also require somebody to go to Llandaff each evening to exchange the sorted mail with the other participating scout groups and collect the mail for the Wenvoe area. By the end of the week with all the local mail sorted into roads we require deliverers. We are responsible for mail in Wenvoe , Brooklands area, Twyn-yr-Odyn, St Lythans, Dyffryn and The Downs. It is at this stage the whole family can lend a hand with a short walk in the area.
We will be sorting at the Community Centre at the following dates and times
Saturday 2ndd Dec. @ 7.00pm
Sunday 3rdh Dec @ 2.30pm
Monday 4th Dec @ 7.00pm
Tuesday 5th Dec @ 7.00pm
Wednesday 6th Dec. @ 7.45pm
Mail exchange starts on Saturday 2nd December and continues until Wednesday 6th December. Delivery of the mail starts on Saturday 9th December.
If you would like to lend a hand with any of the activities involved please contact Martin Williams 20593345 or e-mail wenvoescoutgroup@gmail.com, Ian Moody 20594573 or Jane Fenton-May 20593221 or any leader connected with the scout group. Those who have assisted in the past have found it an enjoyable experience.
NOTE – The Scout post covers Cardiff and most of the Vale but does NOT include Beddau, Bridgend, Castleton, Church Village, Coychurch, Kenfig, Llantrisant, Llantwit Fadre, Marshfield, Miskin, North Cornelly, Ogmore & Garw Valley, Pencoed, Pontyclun, Porthcawel, Talbot Green, Tonteg which are all outside our area.
SCOUT POST 2017 Delivery Areas
District Family Camp
1st Wenvoe Scout Group is growing
1st Wenvoe Scout Group is growing and active. We believe through adventure we challenge individuals so that they learn and experience new things that enrich their lives. Last year the Beavers visited Pets at Home and loved meeting and holding lots of different animals. They also explored lots of different countries by making a passport, trying different foods and playing games. Cubs had a weekend away adventure on pack holiday and the Scouts went on a canoeing course at Barry Community Water Activities Centre achieving their One Star award. This term we are already planning our district family camp including rock climbing, archery and a campfire; a Beavers sleepover; a Cubs team sports event and Scouts gamer hike.
We are busy re-growing our group and aim to increase our children numbers back up to maximum. We can only do this with additional adults supporting us on a regular basis at weekly sessions, helping with activities and in our group management. If you are interested in finding out more about the group and how you can support us please contact us at 1stwenvoe@ penarthanddistrict.org.uk. If you would like to add your child to our waiting list please contact Trudy at 1stwenvoe.join@penarthanddistrict.org.uk. If you have older children in the group, please check their younger sibling is on the waiting list if you would like them to join too.
Tori Thomas, Group Scout Leader
Scout Post 2016 Report
So How did the Scout Post Go?
Happy New Year from 1st Wenvoe Scout Group. We hope that you had a wonderful time with family and friends, or perhaps just enjoyed a bit of peace and quiet and some better than usual telly. Here in the Williams residence as I type this, we are still waiting for our delivery scout elves to text us with confirmation that they have delivered their bags of post. We then have to report back to the main sorting office that all our mail has been delivered. So it’s all go here at the moment. By the time you read this it will be a distant memory and you will all be cursing through dry January or just about sticking to that diet. Keep at it!
I know we all grumble that scout post is so early but if you take a moment to think about what’s involved you might realise that we really do need that time to get the job done. Last posting day in 2016 was 5th December and we had already started sorting on the Saturday and Sunday. One person drives down to the main sort in Pontcanna scout hut where all the Cardiff and Vale groups meet to swap post for each other. We hand out post to each area – Barry, Rhiwbina, Grangetown etc and they hand us our Wenvoe post which is brought back to our sorters in the community centre. We sort this into streets, farms and so on and by Thursday of that week (so, Thursday 8th 2016) we finished sorting and handed out bags of mail to our deliverers. That mail has to be delivered by the following weekend – which is usually the weekend before Christmas. That’s the latest the mail should be delivered by so you can see I hope why we have to sell stamps so early and have such an early day for our last post. You’ll just have to be more organised if you missed it! And by the way, it is only stamps sold in Wenvoe which benefit our scout group – so don’t buy them from anyone else!. Oh, and another myth, last years stamps are just as valid as this years, they don’t go out of date!
This year we had the usual cards from optimistic senders, ie just names, no, and/or incorrect addresses. So if anyone recognises: Vicky Haines in Draenen Wen (no number); Mr & Mrs Pugh 53 Heol Draenen Wen (no such number exists); Julie & Ray & family, Culverhouse X; Nicola and Martin (no address at all) and the last one, John Burles or Burkes, (again, no address well I’m sorry but our scouting telepathy skills failed us and regretfully we were unable to deliver these cards. The 53 Heol Draenen Wen card is a serial offender each year – so if you do recognise it perhaps you might ask your friends and relatives if they have your correct address.
It’s just a thought.
I say this because we do have a report back from the scout post organisers in February each year and sometimes we hear the odd grumble that post was not delivered and whilst that is no doubt true for a very small amount of post for one reason or another, sometimes it’s because the address was simply wrong in the first place.
We also had a fair number of cards for further afield which we cannot deliver at all, for example, Sidcup, London, Welshpool to give you a few examples. We put most of these in the Royal Mail as we have no other way of delivering those. It would be nice to think that the recipients pointed this out to the senders – but I suspect that is wishful thinking. Of course, this year we have had a few more houses to deliver to with the developments at Redrow and Bellway at either end of the village. I apologise to our army of sorters who had to suffer the Husbands ‘witty’ nickname for each end of the village which I won’t share here, save to say that the word ‘end’ featured in both… I know, I know, I’m sorry and no offence is intended, honestly.
Moving swiftly on, of course the real reason for this article is to thank the army of sorters, sellers, deliverers, exchange swappers, Ian who is still the ‘main man’ despite what the Husband thinks, custodians of the post boxes and of course our treasurer who has to count up all the fiddling small change. We couldn’t do scout post without you, it would simply be an impossible task so we value your help more than you could ever know. We are always grateful for help with post – which is a lovely Christmassy thing to do, so if you fancy popping down next year please let us know.
Sue Williams
PS – We have a card for a Mr and Mrs K M Rees, Southlands, St Lythans, CF5 6BG. No house by this name is recognised in the area. Contact wenvoe scoutgroup@gmail.com if you wish to claim the card.
