A Busy Start to 2008

A new year and a fabulous start! Some of our Beaver Scouts attended the "We're all in this Together" Show at King Georges Hall at the end of January to celebrate the end of the Centenary Year of Scouting. The show was sensational and the cast, which included some of Baxenden’s finest, was fantastic!

The focus for this term has been developing team building skills. The Beavers have enjoyed activities, crafts and games that have encouraged them to work together and gain as many stars as they can for their own lodges.

We’ve also been busy working towards their challenge awards and this had included oodles of fun picking up Maltesers with chop sticks, food tasting and decorating biscuits with squishy icing!!

Baxenden took part in the District Beaver Akeema competition on the 9th February 2008. We had such a good turn out that we entered two teams! They certainly appeared to enjoy all the events, and excelled at curling!! Unfortunately, neither team won the trophy, but they did receive certificates for taking part.

Thanks to Michelle Thornton for helping us out with Baxenden’s base at such short notice – you really where a star!!!

Thanks Also to Martin Rothwell for escorting one of our teams round the competition and being so supportive !!

December 2007

The Beaver Scouts have been as busy as ever this last month with lots of special events, but they’ve managed to squeeze in their Hobbies badge, and gave us a great presentation of some of their extra curricula activities which was thoroughly enjoyable.

We also invited one of the leaders from a Scout Group in Darwen to give us an entertaining evening of unique warm-ups and campfire songs! Thanks Mick!!



The Christmas Experience at Bowley was yet another successful event which the boys really enjoyed albeit with a couple of surprises on the way. Thank you to Andrea and Craig for undertaking the tour for us with the group, to enable Tracy and me to participate in the Experience for the week!


The Christmas party went with a bang. We had Jacobs Join which the parents kindly provided, traditional Christmas games and lots of little cowboys running round with very loud gun’s, needless to say they had a great time! Leaders had headaches all round!!

To finish off the year in true Hyndburn Beaver Scout style, Baxenden joined in the trip to Blackpool Tower Circus Panto as a special day to celebrate the end of our Centenary Year.

Many thanks to our Tracy also (ADC Beavers) who arranged this trip for the whole of Hyndburn (111 Beaver Scouts attended), you did a sterling job, and it all went fantastically well! Everybody who attended also received a unique commemorative badge for the occasion.

Last but certainly not least, thank you to Susan, for all her help throughout the year, and for the fabulous craft activities that she provides on a regular basis for us.

October 2007..

Trying to catch my tail here and catch up. We've had such a busy time during October:-

The Beavers have completed their Animal Friend activity badge, they undertook a 2 week diary of activites for their pet descirbing all the things they needed to do to ensure that their pet remains happy and well.

They've also completed both elements of the Safety Badge one part being the green cross code, and we invited our local neighbourhood lollipop lady to help us with this.

The second part of the badge incorporated a discussion in small groups around general water safety and the understanding of the warning signs displayed at beaches and rivers etc.

For a more creative evening, we invited the ladies from the local linedancing club to join us and teach the beavers (and us) some simple dance routines. Although they may not admit it, the beavers really quite enjoyed themselves, as did we!!!! (Honestley)

We've also completed the Hobbies activity badge. The beavers individually, gave a small demonstration or talk about their chosen hobbie to the leaders and a small group. Its clear that we have variety of talent in the colony including:- cricket, fishing, football, swimming, gymnastics, walking and various collections. Quite amazing!

Fundraising Event

Fundraising event - Sunday. All sections of the Scout Group joined in and helped with the planning and preparations. The weather was fantastic, which was a god send, especially for the children participating in the sponsored runs. The over 8's did a mini run of approx 2 miles on a planned course, whilst the under 8's sprinted round the edge of the school field. Winners of both runs and runners-up where presented with medals.

There where some great activities including sponge throwing and elastic band shooting, beat the goalie and the human fruit machine which all the children thoroughly enjoyed.

Thank you to everybody who helped with the event, either by attending and spending money or with preparations, contributing gifts and or time etc. A special thank you to the parents and volunteers who helped on the day, and Sarah who made all those fantastic biscuits for us the week before!

Leaders Centenary Banquet and Ball

Some of the Leaders from Baxenden Scout group attended the Banquet and Ball which was held at Mytton Fold Hotel at the end of September. The “black tie” ball was hosted by our County Commissioner and involved Leaders from across the county to celebrate the Centenary year and thank the leaders for all the work that we do throughout the year.

Baxenden had a fantastic time, and really enjoyed getting dressed up in our best bib and tucker, rather than getting the usual muddy boots and waterproofs out - didn't we look fine !

September Term

Well, we really have been busy since we’ve returned back after the summer holidays. The beavers where asked to help design the souvenir badge for the District Beavers Centenary Trip to Blackpool Tower in December. They came up with some fabulous, individual and colourful ideas which gave me lots of inspiration when submitting the final version to the ADC Beavers!

We had a productive evening at Bowley “badger tracking” with Skip, and we’ve joined in with our decorated cut out hands for the “Big Left Handshake”. This will be a huge collage of cut-out hands to symbolise the friendly commitment to scouting from all contributors from all over the world!

End of Term!

How quickly we’ve come to the end of another term and the school year! The beaver scouts have worked really hard and had lots of fun working towards their “imagination” badge.

They built a “robot head” that they could use in a short performance of “Little Robots” at the end of term. This task culminated in a huge pile of recycled photocopying boxes (courtesy of Andrea) multitudes of rolls of tin foil and some very weird and wonderful looking models, but altogether some very happy children!!

We then undertook the arduous task of learning and preparing the “Little Robots” song with each Beaver having a small part to say(easier said than done believe me!).

Their final performance took place in the Lodge at Bowley Scout Camp in front of all their family and friends, and with over 40 people watching it was quite a daunting task! Needless to say, we were very proud of them!

We have tasked the beavers to undertake the final part of the badge over the 6 week holidays, which is to design and develop a “hot Wheels” car. We look forward to the array of models when we return in September (6th).

All guests joined us for an indoor Barbeque (thanks to Skip, Craig and Joseph who did all the cooking and washing!). Tracy co-ordinated a raffle to generate some money for the section and created a great display of photos we'd taken from the Centenary Camp, together with the Beaver Scouts personal year books for their families to see what they’ve been up to!

To close the meeting off, we presented Debbie, who has been a Colony Assistant over the last few years with a small gift to say thank you and good luck as she will be leaving with her family to go to the wonderful Oz – we wish her lots of luck and will miss her greatly!

We have had yet another enjoyable term of fun and games and I’m sure that both the beaver scouts and the leaders are looking forward to a long, well earned rest, ready for the new term in September.

Centenary Camp 2007 - One World One Promise!

The East Lancashire celebrations where hosted at Bowley Scout Camp, with over 1300 campers and 500 Beaver Scout day visitors.

In preparation the Leaders and the Beavers Scouts designed their own "Baxenden" T-shirts, so that they would stand out in the crowd, additionally, we all had a "paw" in designing one for Jennifer, our District Commissioner which we presented to her after the opening ceremony!

The programme for the weekend was outstanding, with activities for every age and ability, some of these included:- dunk tank, mobile climbing wall, inflatable rainbow slide, jousting, aerial runway, displays by the emergency services, kayaking, planetarium, wet sponge throwing, target shooting and many indoor crafts.

All participants received a birthday tea and celebrated together with games including a giant conga and pass the parcel!

Evening celebrations began with districts holding there own camp fires and traditional songs and prayer, followed the main event with an amazing display of fireworks, music and dance, mini shows starring beavers, cubs and scouts and a poignant selection of photos that had been captured throughout the day.

The atmosphere was electric, and every camper will receive a souvenir DVD of the weekend celebrations to keep as a memento of the fantastic occasion!

Beaver Scouts Akeema Shield

The Akeema Shield took place at Bowley Scout Camp on Saturday the 28th April 2007. This is an annual "mini-olympics" style competition for the Beaver Scouts, with teams participating at District level. Our team from 1st Baxenden took part along with 5 other teams from the Hyndburn District.

Each team took charge of their own base and included golf target shooting, egg and spoon race, bean bag target shooting, penalty shoot out, box and broom and the obstacle course supervised by Audrey (BSL) for 1st Baxenden.

Alas, our Beaver Scouts didn’t win the competition but they did have fun and thoroughly enjoyed the afternoon and the fortuitous good weather.

The winning team “Loyola Oswaldtwistle” where presented with a shield by the ADC Beavers (our very own Tracy Shaw) and will go forward to represent Hyndburn District in the East Lancashire County Competition later in the year.

Baxenden Beavers - St Georges Day Parade

St George's day is celebrated on the 23rd April with the majority of celebrations taking place on the nearest Sunday. Saint George became the Patron Saint of The Scout Association, as Robert Baden-Powell believed that he set a good example of faith, courage and perseverance.



In preparation for the event, our Beaver Scouts made shields and swords to wear during the district parade, which took place on Sunday 22nd April 2007.



The parade was led by St George on horseback followed by Scouts, Cubs, Beavers, Ranger Guides, Brownies. Each section carrying their own section flag.

The service was held at St James Church, Accrington. Each of the Laws where read by a Beaver, a Cub and a Scout and representatives from the Rainbows, Brownies and Guides. The Promises where also renewed, led by the respective Commissioners.

Two of our Beaver Scouts also received their Chief Scout’s Bronze Award presented by the Deputy Mayor.