posted 4 May 2011 03:40 by Brian Dunne
We entered a team in this years Scout County Challenge (The Shield) which was held in Forest Farm Camp Site in Athy. The event took place over 4 days from Friday 29th April till Monday 2nd May. The team had a great time, and took part in all the tasks presented to them with vigour and zeal. We were blessed with great weather, which helped. They performed really well, finishing up 5th in the overall rankings. This was a fantastic result for a team trying for their first time. I'm sure you will join with me in wishing them all the best in next years event.
Yours in Scouting
Brian
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posted 11 Apr 2011 05:48 by Brian Dunne
We attended the County Day "Founders Day" on Saturday 9th April 2011. The event was held in Donadea Forest Park. It was a wonderful day with the Sun shining. We have about 20 youth members in attendance from both the Cub and Scout Sections. The day was opened by the Chief Scout, with the Group Leader from 9th Kildare Kilcullen Scout Group receiving a Life Long Achievement Award for Service to Scouting. This was followed up by our own Christy McEvoy receiving his second Wood Badge award. This is a wonderful achievement for Christy.
Fun and games ensued with the Cubs taking part in an Orienteering Competition and the Scouts on the Field with Total Experience, partaking on Fun and adventure games. Christy and Debi cooked up some Hot dogs for lunch and then the games started again. The day was rounded of with a Scouts Own where every group that was present either sang a song or told a poem or performed a Sketch.
I know that I am looking forward to next years event.
Yours in Scouting
Brian
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posted 21 Mar 2011 04:40 by Brian Dunne
On Sunday 20th March 2011, we attended the County Scout Challenge, this event was hosted by the Killcullen Scout Group. We had a total of 4 teams in the event. It was a fun day and everybody in attendance had a great time. I would like to thank all the Scouters and Parents who gave up their Sunday to help make this a great event.
When the event was over the Killcullen Scout Group also hosted the Scout County Fora, where a new county Scout team was elected to represent the youth members and give them a voice at County meetings and the like. We had three Scouts in attendance at this fora. I would like to congratulate Abigail Dunne, who was elected to the Fora committee. I hope you would join with me in wishing her success in this position.
Yours in Scouting
Brian |
posted 21 Mar 2011 04:22 by Brian Dunne
On Saturday 12th March 2011 we held the inaugural Inter Group Football challenge. This was between Monasterevin and Portarlington Scouts. The Match was played in poor enough weather conditions but was enjoyed by all present.The match was a very evenly fought event with the side being level at the half time break. However in the second half Monasterevin dug deep and found another gear and they started to pull ahead. After some suspect calls by the "Ref" it looked like it might have to go to extra time, but again the Monasterevin Team fought hard and managed to pull ahead and eventually come out on top. I would like to thank Mr Pat Ryan for attending the event and presenting the Medals and Cup to all the participants on the day. The match was followed up with a BBQ in the Den. It is anticipated that this will become an Annual Event and we hope that this will be hosted in Portarlington next year.
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posted 21 Mar 2011 04:17 by Brian Dunne
I would like to thank all the Scouters and Youth Members who marched in the Parade on St. Patrick's Day. This was a great success for us, with our display coming second in volunteer competition. This is the first time that any of us can remember winning a prize on the Parade. I would like to thank the Parents of the youth members for ensuring that they were turned out in great style from Shamrock Hats and Badges to Ireland flag faces.
I hope that next year will be even a bigger success
Yours in Scouting
Brian Dunne |
posted 7 Mar 2011 10:11 by Brian Dunne
I would like to say Well done to all the Scouts and Cubs who attended County Orienteering Day in the Curragh. We had a total of 24 youth members who took part. It was a great day and everybody had a ball. I would like to thank all the leaders and parents who gave up their Sunday to ensure that a good day was had by all.
With the success of this event, I know that I am looking forward to our County Founders Day on Saturday 9th April. This promises to be another great event. So put the date in your Diary and remember that it is events like this that put the OUT is SCOUT.
Yours in Scouting
Brian
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posted 28 Feb 2011 05:45 by Brian Dunne
Just a quick update on the Camp at the weekend. Christy and Co had a camp over with the Cubs on Friday night, and by all accounts everybody had a great night.
Saturday Night was a blast, with the Portarlington Scouts staying over as well. We all went out for a meal, and then had a lovely hike down by the Canal. We even managed a singsong on the hike as well.
We rounded this off with a Movie in the Den.
On Sunday morning we all went to the new Park and had a bit of fun
Everybody went home by 10:30 am.
I know that I am looking forward to the next camp, which will be happening soon.
Watch this space..... |
posted 7 Feb 2011 07:40 by Brian Dunne
Hi
All,
We have just
returned from our annual trip to Splash World in Tramore, Co. Waterford. We all
met at the Scout Den between 9:00 and 9:30 on Saturday the 5th Feb 2011. What a
lovely day it was, with hurricane winds and rain. However we didn't let the
weather dampen our enthusiasm as we set of for a day full of Fun and
Adventure.
When we arrived at
Splash World, we met another Scout Group from Cahir in Co. Tipperary.
After a quick
safety briefing from the Life Guards at Splash World, we all got changed and
headed for the pool.
As per normal,
some of the group couldn’t make their mind up where they wanted to go first,
either the Wave Pool, Swimming or straight for the Slides. After some slagging
from the youth members, Jacko and Fiona finally gave up their protests and got
into the pool with the rest of us. We all had a great time in the water, and
the waves seemed to be bigger this year than previous years.
When we finally
got out of Splash World we headed into Tramore for a visit to the Local Shops,
however most of them were closed. We then decided to head straight for Kilkenny
for a KFC as everybody was feeling hungry.
We finally arrived
back in Monasterevin at about 6:45 pm with a very tired bunch of Scouts and
Scouters. Everyone seemed to enjoy the day and I know that I am looking forward
to the next trip to Splash World.
Yours in Scouting
Brian Dunne |
posted 28 Sep 2010 02:03 by Brian Dunne
Hi All,
We have just returned from our trip to the South Kildare Scout County - County Camp 2010. This was held in Lacken, just outside Blessington on the banks of the lake. We departed from the Scout's Den at about 5pm on Friday evening the 24th September and arrived to a bustling Camp Site. We had our site set up and running by 7:30pm. Sandra, then got busy in the Cooking tent preparing a delirious meal for us all. After we cleaned up from supper we all got ready for the Official Opening Ceremony. This was a great spectacle with over 850 Cubs, Scouts and Leaders in attendance. The ceremony was followed by an outdoor disco. At about 11 pm the Disco finished up and everybody headed back to their camp sites. Again Sandra was on hand to provide some food for the Cubs and Scouts. Everybody bedded down for the night by 11:30 and Lights out was called at 12am.
Much to the surprise of many in attendance, the early "Morning Bugle" and Tunes of "Walking on Sunshine" was blasted out over the PA system at 7am. Needless to say some of our group were not too impressed with such an early start. But after a bowl of cereal and a few sausages they were in fine form for the day ahead. Our Group was split into two sections, Cubs and Scouts and they headed off on their Programme for the day with kids from other scout groups from the county. They were involved in various activities throughout the day, like the Obstacle Course, Field Games, Karting, Archery and Kayaking. They had a break during the day for lunch, which they all enjoyed. Later that evening it was time for all to get changed into their costumes for the "Hillbilly BBQ", Some of the costumes where very imaginative and lost of blue rope and straw hats were used. After everybody had been fed, we had our Campfire singsong and another disco. This finished up by about 10:30 pm as everybody was very tired at this stage. The Staff at the camp then provided a surprise box of piping hot sausages and rolls for every group on site. I did a walk around the camp site at 11:30pm and almost everybody was asleep at that stage.
On Sunday morning we let everybody have a sleep in and we didn't get the group up till about 9am. We all had our breakfast and we started to pack away our kit. We had the site cleared away by 11:30 and the kids had some free time until 12:00 when we went for a hike down by the lake for the Closing Ceremony. This hike involved crossing a few streams which proved to be a bit of a challenge for some of the kids, but was great fun to watch. After the Ceremony was over we all returned to the site to wait for the additional transport for the lift home.
In all we had 22 Kids and 3 Leaders on camp. I would like to thank Sandra, Daryl and Jacko, who came on site Friday morning, for all their help over the weekend. I feel that it was a great success and I'm looking forward to going again next year, and I hope that the Kids are as well
Yours in Scouting
Brian |
posted 7 Jul 2010 05:43 by Brian Dunne
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updated 8 Jul 2010 08:46 by 14th Kildare Scouts Monasterevin
]
We departed from the Scouts Den at 10:30am on Friday Morning. We had 18 Scouts and Cubs and 7 Leaders on the Trip. We stopped in Roscommon for lunch on the way. We arrived in Achill about 2:30 pm and started to set up Camp. We had the camp up and running by about 6:30pm and all the Kids got their gear set-up in their tents. We got the BBQ fired up and everybody enjoyed Spare Ribs and Burgers and Sausages for dinner. We gave the Kids the evening to wander around the Camp Site and the local Play Park. There was a Carnival next to the camp site as the Achill Half Marathon was taking place on the Saturday so there was a great buzz about the place.
On Saturday after have a hearty breakfast we spend some time storm proofing the tents as bad weather was expected later that night. We then departed for a trip to the Deserted Village, were Brian Kirwan told the Kids all about the history of the place (Even a mountain got renamed as part of the story). Some of the Scouts and Cubs along with a few leaders hiked up the mountain. Afterwards we drove alone the Atlantic Coast Drive and stopped to offer some encouragement to the participants in the Half Marathon, some of which looked like they could have got on the bus with us at that stage. Afterwards some of the runners said that the sight of the Scouts on the side of the road cheering them on really helped them. We then returned to the Camp site for lunch. After lunch we went kayaking on the Lake at Keel where the water was shallow and the fun was immense. Everybody had a great time playing all kinds of games in the water. After dinner that evening we got to see a Helicopter rescue taking place to help the Coast Guard air lift an injured fisherman from the Island. We stayed around the camp site for the evening and spend some time cleaning up around the site. This was followed by a singsong in the dinning shelter till about 11:30pm when we then got the Kids settled into their tents as we awaited the on coming storm that was forecasted. Guy lines were tightened and Pegs were reinforced with what ever came to hand. As expected the Storm hit land about 1am in the morning and it lashed the Island for the rest of the night. Not much sleep was had my most of the leaders as they were out checking on tents and equipment for most of the night. In total we only had problems with 2 tents and luckily for the kids these were both the Male and Female leaders’ tents.
Bad weather was forecast for the day on Sunday so after meeting with the Surfing instructor at keel we decided in the interest of safety to no go surfing. We also met with the Owner of the Camp Site and decided due to the poor weather forecast for the remainder of our stay that we should move everybody to an indoor facility for the remainder of our stay. This was discussed this with the leaders and Kids and everybody was agreeable that this would be the best option so as everybody would enjoy the stay better if we could at least be guaranteed to stay dry at night time. We then packed away all the tents and some of the sleeping bags and gear that had got wet during the storm were dried in the laundry room on site. We played some games at the park and we used the Rec room at the camp site to play pool and table soccer. There was also a TV there for the kids to watch. After a fantastic dinner that evening we headed to Castlebar for a session in the bowling alley. This was followed by a trip to McDonalds for some food on the way back to camp.
On Monday morning we packed away all our gear and headed to the Achill Adventure Centre where we all tried our hands at Archery and played some adventure and problem solving games. This was a great facility and all the events were housed indoors so we managed to stay out of the bad weather for a while. After lunch there was a beak in the weather, the wind stopped and the sun came out. Due to this lucky break we decided to go swimming at Keem beach, which is fantastic even with the scary drive to the site along the coast road. Everybody had a ball and we spend several hours there playing games and swimming.We were due to travel back to Castlebar on Monday evening to go to the Cinema, however after making the best of the nice weather at the beach we decided to give this a miss as it was too late in the evening to travel that far. So instead we set up our projection system and had a movie night in the Rec room at the camp site. Many of the kids and even a leader or two didn’t see too much of the film and within about 15 minutes they were asleep. It’s amazing what a few hours in the sea can do.
On Tuesday after we packed up we were planning to travel to the beach again, but unfortunately the weather had turned bad again so we decided to leave the site a bit early. We stopped in Roscommon for a KFC on the way home, and after an impromptu meeting in the car park among the leaders it was decided that we should still give the kids a trip to the Cinema as we had originally planned. We then headed to Athlone and we went to see Shrek 4 in 3D. Everybody thoroughly enjoyed the movie. After the film was over we headed for Monasterevin and arrived back to the Scout Den about 8:30pm.
I would like to thank everybody for coming on the trip this year and I hope that everybody enjoyed their time despite the bad weather. Of all the parts of a trip that we can plan the weather isn’t one of them.
I would also like to thank all the leaders for the time and support on camp and throughout the year as well. I know that I am looking forward to next year’s trip already.
Yours in Scouting
Christy McEvoy
Group Leader
14th Kildare Scouts
P.S Check out the Photos in the Photo Gallery.
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