Abbeyside Scout Unit Notes, 12th November 2006

4th Waterford Unit,
St Joseph’s
Abbeyside
Cub Pack and Scout Group Notes

12/11/06

Cub Pack News

David Sheehan started off the meeting by saying the Cub Scout prayer joined in by the rest of the Cub Pack. Gearoid and Michael did roll call while Eamonn and Brendan set out tables and chairs for the Cubs to do part of their Artist Challenge Badge. Each cub was given a piece of coloured paper with a pencil to start drawing their Cards’, a Christmas Card was being done. With everyone sitting down Eamonn showed the Cubs the best way to fold the paper to make it look like a card. With colouring pencils, glue, coloured glitter and tape at hand the Cubs got down to work. There were some false starts but everyone produced some very nice work. The finishing touches will be put to the cards during next weeks meeting for the Cubs to bring them home.

It was then tidy up time and into a straight line for the Cubs to be broken into two teams for some crab soccer. This was a quick game as the clock fast approaching eight o’clock and the end of the meeting. With all the Cubs in line a quick piece of Tenderfoot Badge was done, this was by demonstrating the Cub Scout sign, which all Cubs did to perfection. Malachy Lawless was presented with his plague for bowling as well as his Clan Leader/Sixer badge. As is always the tradition the Clan Leaders were invited to join the Scouts during the indoor Cooking Competition the next day their Seconders, Sean, David and Ruari were told they could visit also. The meeting finished with Sean Kiely leading the Cub Scout Prayer.

Scout Group News

When the Scout Prayer was said the Scouts observed a moment of silence for peace in the world. Roll was called and Twelve Days Of Christmas tickets were collected and given out. The Scouts got their Patrol Areas ready for the Indoor Cooking Competition on Sunday. New gear was given out to each of the Patrol Leaders for use and each put coloured tape to distinguish the individual Patrol Gear. With Tables set out and final cleaning done everyone headed home.

Indoor Cooking Competition

The day had finally arrived. The tables were set, the cooking gear ready, food was bought, it was time to start cooking. The Patrols had some time before the start time to get the last details sorted. Each patrol had to have a hand written Menu card and stick to a budget. The Patrols Leaders had agreed to the basic menu beforehand.

The main examiner for today was Ciaran Walsh with SPL’s Maro and Michael helping out. The other Leaders were on hand to answer any questions from the Scouts and examiners.

Two Cub Scouts joined the Scout Group, Malachy Lawless and Ruari Conway, to see how things are done in the Scout Group.

Two o’clock marked the start of the Indoor Cooking Competition 2006. As the Patrols busied themselves with preparing food, and getting water on the Gas Cookers to boil. Patrol members set tables and chopped food, as each Patrol was ready they called the examiners to their tables to taste their fare the standard as always was very high from all the Patrols. The first started was the Tiger Patrol of Cormac O’Mahony, with Eagle Patrol of Joe Conway being the last to start. All the meals were different variations of the set menu but proved you can do a lot more with a basic menu. The Kestrel Patrol showed food that could be found on any Fine Restaurant Menu and our own ‘Gordan’ Patrick Fennell produced exceptional food without the childish tantrums and foul Language, if only they had used the Melon in their starter.

The smells that filled the den were intoxicating and brought a rumble to the many stomachs. As desserts were produced and the final clean up started the examiners started to total up the scores. It was a close run thing with only a few points separating each of the Patrols. Small differences between the patrols such as whom had neckerchiefs on, portion size, value for money. The examiners went away for a few moments to finalise the result.

While the rest of the Group waited for the final result there were a number of other presentations to be made. First there was the cooking competition from Annual Camp in Fota to be presented this won by the Panther Patrol who was PL Cearbhall Turraoin, APL Cormac O’Mahony, Kevin Brasil, James Harty and Rhys Mitchell (missing for presentation).
Group Treasurer William Whelan presented Scout Of The Year to Dylan Lawless.
Jimmy shine Group Chairman gave a talk about the NLB Trophy explaining to all present about the men whom the Trophy is named.

Leaders David Hickey and Kieran Harty put the Peg on the wall for Annual Camp 2006 in Fota in its place of honour high on the wall in the Scout Den joining the other pegs to commemorate the Annual Camps that the Scout Troop have been on all the way back to the very first one.

The results were ready and Ciaran gave a talk about what they found and how high the standard was, he had comments for each patrol. The winners were the Panther Patrol with PL Cearbhall Turraoin, APL Tony O’Mahony, Conor Lawless, and Declan Leonard.

It was looking like Cearbhall’s day and yes they were also the winners of the NLB with prizes being presented to PL Cearbhall Turraoin, APL Cormac O’Mahony, Kevin Brasil, James Harty and Rhys Mitchell (missing for presentation).

Cearbhall was then presented with Patrol Leader of the Year.

Well done to all the Scouts they did well and unfortunately there can be only one winner.

Patrick Fennell was presented with his Senior Patrol Leader strips, well done Patrick.

The Leaders with like to thank William Whelan, Group Treasure and Jimmy Shine Group Chairman for making the presentations. A special word of thanks, to Ciaran Walsh, for coming down from Cork, to examine the meals.

Notices

Next weeks meeting is Full Uniform

On Friday November 24th at eight thirty in the sports centre the Cubs and Scouts will be Star Gazing. Cost of this is €5.00. Full Uniform is to be worn by all. A note will be given out at next week’s meetings.

The Group Annual Mass will be held on Sunday 10th December in Abbeyside at 9.30am. This is a FULL UNIFORM event. Parents, family and friends are invited to join the Troop for this special Mass to mark the year just past, the coming year, and praying for members of the 4th Waterford past and present, living and deceased.