St George's Parade in Alcester

Our annual parade was in Alcester this year. A number of Cubs had specific responsibilities, so well done to them. They all looked very smart!

 

 

The Shirley Pipe Band led the parade to and from St Nicholas' Church.

 



Scarlett and Martha read a prayer in the service

 

Jessica was a flag escort, Kieren carried the flag and Alfie was the other flag escort.

 







Beavers to Cubs: Our "Swimming Up" Ceremony

It has been a year since any of our Beavers were old enough to move up to Cubs. This year there will be 9 of them! We do a simple ceremony, but it's great fun for the older Beaver to do on their last meeting in the Colony. We did two Beaver "swim ups" this week. Let's follow Luke:
First Luke is on the Beaver side of the river:

 

Then Luke goes "into the river" as a Beaver...

 

 ... then he emerges as a Cub Scout, in his green top:

 

 Finally, Luke is welcomed to the Pack by Akela and, in this instance, Sonny and Olivia.

Learning about Buddhism (for the World Challenge Award)

At this week's meeting, we had another guest instructor - Linda. She told the Cubs all about her Buddhist beliefs, the main aspects of the faith and the chant they recite.

This module is one of eight that the Cubs have to do for this award. For 9 of the older Cubs, it was their last module and they all received their World Challenge Award badge at the end of the meeting.

West Warwickshire District Quiz Champions!

Well done Cubs. Eight Cubs made up two teams of four at the District Quiz held at Tanworth-in-Arden on Tuesday evening this week and the oldest team won!

 

Congratulations Sonny, Fin, Alfie (winning team), Martha (winning team), Felix (with trophy - winning team), Olivia, Scarlett (winning team) and Beatrix. We are very proud of your efforts.

Doing a Good Turn at Mary Arden's Farm

We spent two hours at Mary Arden's Farm on Saturday 27th February, helping two of their staff by tidying up the long pathway that goes around two-hirds of the building. This was part of helping them get ready for re-opening to the public on March 12th 2016.



And the photographer popped along from The Herald. The Farm Manager had tipped him off so that they too could get publicity.

The Cubs were also treated to an informal wonder around to meet the new arrivals.

Thanks to all the Mums & Dads who helped as well (plus the sisters!).

Stratford Foodbank

For last night's meeting, we visited the Foodbank in Stratford-upon-Avon. Each of us took quite a few items to donate - a number of Cubs thought the food would be sent on to Africa; they didn't realise that people in our area needed food in times of hardship.
Marion, the Manager, explained how the charity worked and how individuals or families accessed the food. The Cubs asked lots of great questions and found out how it all works. This was all part of their World Challenge Award work.

Marion explained how the food store was laid out and the items dated rotated.





We learnt that last Friday 30 people were helped by being given three days worth of food.

At the end, the Cubs labelled their donations with the "best-before" month and year, so that the volunteers who look after the store can rotate their donations in with existing stock.

Oh, and welcome to William who is old enough to join us from our Beaver Colony.

 



Chinese New Year "Year of the Monkey"

We have our own monkey of course - King Louie from the Jungle Book - and he's been out and about celebrating in Wilmcote.

When Robery Baden-Powell started up the Wolf Cub section in 1916, he got permission from his friend, Rudyard Kipling, to use the Jungle Book as a basis for the section. That's where the adult leader's names come from ("Akela" was the wise old wolf) as well as a couple of ceremonies (Grand Howl at the start of the meetings is based on the circle of wolves in the book).



The Cubs made a New Year card at Cubs this week. Jessica was really inventive with her's - she made it 3D!