Firstly apologies for no report last month, but in brief, the end of April was filled with the fun of group camp. We had 14 Cubs joined for the three days, for many it was the first time sleeping away from home, as for these Cubs sleepovers at home with family and friends haven’t happened due to COVID – I think it is fair to say arriving at camp and getting set up was for most of them one very exciting moment of the weekend. The Historic Dockyard at Portsmouth was amazing, with a tour around HMS Victory, followed by HMS Warrior, where we were entertained by the living history of the actors, who took us by surprise. Ending the day with a trip on a boat across the harbour to the Submarine Museum. A fabulous time with the sunshine with us all day. The next day, the Sunday, saw a battle of ships made by the whole group, mixed in ages from Explorers, Scouts, Cubs and Beavers and they worked together to make ships out of cardboard ready for battle – water bombs were used for ammunition and one Akela who let battle commence… who got very wet! Great fun was had by all.
After camp, we had such busy times, we visited Redbridge fire station for the evening which completed our Fire Safety badge – what a fantastic evening. The tour of the fire station gave the opportunity to play with some of the cutting equipment which is very heavy. We got dressed up into fire uniform and were invited to use the practice tunnels and use the night vision equipment to find the flashlight hidden in the darkness of the tunnels. We then were treated to the excitement of using the fire hoses to put out a wooden house with fire flames that flap down when you correctly targeted the area of the house that was on fire.
The following week we were at Ferny Crofts, the scout centre in the forest for rafting – in teams of six the Cubs listened to the instructors, created rafts out of plastic barrels and tied wooden poles to them. Then they all climbed aboard the rafts and had races, it was lovely to hear laughing, squealing of fun and shrieks as splashing of water commenced.
We invested Luke and Henry in very soggy clothes on a raft. Wobbling and standing on the raft together Luke’s dad confessed that he felt old but proud that his son had enjoyed and been invested into Cubs in a pond that he dugout with his scouting friends as a scout nearly 40 years ago!
We then decided we needed to focus on our carnival float – the Cubs had been asked to come up with ideas of the things that happened in the 1980s as that was the decade we got drawn out of the hat during a leaders meeting – they did a great investigation and planning of ideas – we broke it down into four areas, the disco/ pop idols/ Live Aid event, technology, the birth of the CD, ghetto blasters, Sony Walkman and mobile phones.
The next was films such as Back to the future, Ghostbusters, Superman and the birth of arcade and computer games so Pacman and Mario took us to another area.
All of the float was covered with 80s ideas given to us by the Cubs. In order to get so much in big designs painted, we projected onto the cardboard the item to be drawn and painted the item – this took two weeks of Cubs and a day during half term. A float made from start to finish by the Cubs – they should be very proud of the artwork they achieved.
Carnival day arrives and wow… it is fair to say Zulu has the most amazing set of parents and grandparents. We started at 9:00 AM and by 11 the float was constructed and looking amazing – I have done carnival for many years and never ever been sat down with a coffee and scones by 11:15. It shows what can happen with many hands making light work of what is such a great day. And all Cubs came for judging at the correct time in the most fantastic outfits – shell suits (who remembers this fashion statement?) double denim so jeans and Jean jackets, disco/neon plus 80s exercise wear, headband and wristbands – how cool did we all look! Going round the village on a float in a carnival was again a first for many of the Cubs and an experience they really enjoyed. Can’t wait to do it all again next year!
Last week we had archery at the scout hut with Mike Ferris – Skip from King troop, again the Cubs had a fabulous time and budding Robin hoods are in our area – so hopefully we will develop their skills and get them aiming for gold at the Olympics one day!
We are fast approaching the end of the term and soon it will be time for some Cubs to move on to scouts so he may have space for some 8 to 10 1/2 year old to come enjoy the fun at Zulu on a Thursday.
Joe Stubbington