Trustee Annual Report 2021-2022
1st Monkstown Scout Group
Up to September 2021
We had a few weeks around June/July when we were able to get the group back together for the likes of games out on the green. Then in August we decided to go with our first ever Summer Group Camp. This saw around 50 Young People (YP) and Adults camping down in Ardnavally Scout Centre for a weekend of fun, activities and great food. This was the largest camp the group had ever untaken and was largely only possible to special funding received from the Education Authority and from the kindness and generosity of local business and their sponsorship.
September 2021
September started with what can only be described as a flood of new members. In recent years the group has had around 30-35 members across 4 sections (Beavers, Cubs, Scouts & Explorers). This year we opened the Squirrel section (4-6 year olds) with the anticipation of getting around another 10 new members from that and from initial interest we had hoped for another 10 new members across the rest of the sections, fingers crossed we prepared for 50 members being signed up. In fact we ended up with over 100 sign ups. Squirrels, Beavers and Cubs all maxed out their limit and waiting lists had to be started. To support this growth, new leaders were found and the leader count is now around 25, up from 10.
October 2021
With numbers being so large and Covid still a real threat the decision was made to move the Beavers over to the Community centre to give everyone some breathing room, literally, and to help with the one way system for entering and exiting the building. The Scouts and Explorers enjoyed getting back to their usual Halloween camp. The Cubs held their annual night hike and were joined by members of the GB, which was great to do the joint activity with them.
November 2021
The usual programme for most sections, however, the Beaver’s had their “day camp”. This was a fantastic day put on in the church for the section that saw them doing all sorts including pitching “wig-wam” tents, having a “camp-fire” and of course good food.
December 2021
In late December we decided to end on the 16th due to the following week being too close to Christmas. That night we had a visit from Santa which went down really well with the whole group, young and old alike, especially since he brought selection boxes!
January 2022
January saw the group back and ready to go again. January is an important month for Scouts as we prepare our annual census returns. As mentioned earlier our numbers were up quite drastically and we are happy to announce that there was very little drop-off across any of the sections and we returned 97x 4-18 year olds.
February 2022
The month kicked off with the Explorers off to Crawfordsburn to do some tree planting in relation to their ICV tasks for their Chief Scout Awards. The following weekend the Cubs held their second hike of the year with this one going from Loughshore up to the church where we finished off with some hot dogs and sticky archery.
March 2022
March started off with the Scouts and Explorers having a fun night with games and pizza which was well attended and gave the leaders time to get chatting with the kids and find out what all they would like to do for the rest of the year. There was also an aid drop night organised for Ukraine thanks to one of the parents. This was extremely successful and thank you to everyone from the church who also donated.