At the end of October 4 troops from the District took park in the community challenge weekend camp. This was a good event with 14 young people from 9th Muswell Hill, 8th Muswell Hill, 2nd Haringey and 221 North London taking part in a fun but hard working weekend and all earning their “Community Challenge Award”.
Apart from 4 lads from the 8th Muswell Hill (who decided to be brave and camp) the Scouts all slept indoors in the new bunkhouse. On the Friday night they arrived at 7pm and were given time to settle in as well as get to know the young people from the other groups. After playing a wide game they retired to bed for a busy but fun day on Saturday.
On the Saturday the weather looked a little iffy but it cleared in time to start the day and the challenge began. The young people were introduced to Adam (the warden), Marlon and Martin Lindsey who would be helping us for the day. The first event that the warden organised was the screaming game, which is where they have to take a deep breath and then run up hill from the Trestling tree to the cub field and see how far they can get whilst screaming before taking a breath. After the game they were split into two teams and Adam explained the competition. They would get 50 points for each bag of leaves they filled and 100 points for every trailer they filled. If both teams got over 1,000 points they would get the opportunity to watch a film on the big screen as well as the prize that Adam had for them which was coke and sweets etc.
The first team of 7 then went down to the pond with Adam, Marlon and Neall whilst the other team started on the path with the leaf blowers from the cub field downwards with Martin and myself. After a safety talk on how to use the leaf blowers all the members of the team had a chance to have a go on the blower whilst the others raked and picked up the leaves into a bag.
They then stopped for lunch, which also gave the team that had been down at the pond a chance to have a shower as they were now a bit smelly.
After lunch the two teams swapped over with the leaf blowers going down to the pond. The pond although a little smelly was incredibly shallow which allowed the Scouts in Waders and a harness with a rope attached to them to get all round the edges and get lots of rubbish off the pond and make a considerable difference.
During the course of the day over 50 bags of leaves were collected from the path and 10 trailers of rubbish from the pond which included everything from a Tin can, a bottle, wood and footballs (we even pulled out a car tyre)
After showing off they eagly awaited the result of the competition. The good news is that each team had earned over 1,000 points so the warden gave them the projector and the sweets and drinks for the evening cinema, however, before they had a film they had the first of two talks about emergency services etc in the community. This one was from Chris Truan (*Haringey District Chairman) about CSI aka forensics. The young people were all very interested in this and learnt about DNA, finger marks, how to solve an arson and more. During the talk they also got the chance to use the fingerprint dusting equipment and dust off a glass for fingerprint and lift it for examination.
The Sunday was a wet day but this did not dampen the camp although hr climbing was cancelled. The morning started with a talk from Brian Smith about the Work of the St Johns Ambulance after which they went off for the first activity that was Air Rifle Shooting, The Scouts all enjoyed this. After a quick lunch they had a go at archery and included making a pizza.
This meant the end of the camp was near and working together as a team they cleaned the Scout hall, dormitories and training complex ready to go home for their mums to throw there clothes in the washing machine and hose the young people down.
My thanks go to everyone that made this camp possible including Neall Garrard, Martin Linsey, Chris Truan, Brian Smith, Marlon and especially Adam for their valuable part in making the challenge badge happen and not forgetting the most important people of all the leaders who sent their Scouts along to have fun whilst earning a challenge badge. Maybe at the next event we can see more Scouts from the District participating?
Derek Chambers
(Acting) ADC Scouts
07956 412 059 – scouts@9thmuswellhill.co.uk