District Commissioners Address Annual St. Georges Day Parade, 22nd April 2012
Distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, brother and sister Scouts.
Welcome to our Annual St. George's Day Parade.
St George's Day Parade is an important event where we renew our Scout Promise, in public, in front of lots of other people.
We do it because this it is what makes us Scouts, it’s what makes us different.
We stand up to be counted. We Scouts are a force for good.
That sounds a bit of an over statement so let me explain.
There is a long tradition in Scouting - Scouts "Do a good turn every day"
Let me give you an example from the earliest days of Scouting. Two Americans were visiting London and were lost in thick fog. A young boy helped them back to their hotel. As you can imagine they were really relieved to have got back safely and they offered the boy a reward for his help. He refused, explaining that he was a Scout and that was his good turn for the day. With that he disappeared back into the fog. No one knows his name but the gentlemen he helped were impressed. One of them was WD Boyce. He later met BP, found out all about Scouting and started the Boy Scouts of America. Since its founding in 1910, 110 million boys have been Scouts in America, and 11 out of 12 men who have stood on the moon were Scouts. All from one Scout who did a good turn for a couple of strangers who were lost.
So on this Celebration of our Centenary, I want us to return to our beginnings. I want each and every one of you to try and do a good turn every day.
To remind you, I am giving you a traditional American "wooden nickle". Each day put it in our left hand pocket and when you have done your good turn secretly transfer it to your right hand pocket.
Do a good turn everyday. It doesn't have to be anything huge, just try and help someone. Just Iike that Scout in London, your reward is their thanks. If you are offered a reward, politely refuse and explain you are a Scout and it's your good turn for the day!
Watch their surprise. Job done!
Thank you
Stephen P Buckley
District Commissioner
The District Beaver Challenge was held on Saturday 2nd February 2012 with teams from Holmes Chapel, Chelford, Handforth and 6th Wilmslow battling to win the prestigious trophy. We all had a great afternoon with Handforth winning the competition. After a much needed drink and biscuits, the Beavers played games, sang songs and generally had a good time. Thanks Debs and team, we will see you again next year !
If you weren’t at the Festival Hall in Alderley Edge on Saturday the 28th January, you missed a treat. We held the first District Talent competition for a long time. In the first half, six teams battled to win a new District Trophy and in the second half we had more entertainment. Network provided three excellent judges (Robson, Chives and Laura) who did a great job. The winners were 6th Cubs with an excellent Shark song, second were 6th Scouts with a gruesome Doctors sketch and third were 5th Beavers with a cute Rollover song. Honourable mentions go to the Band, Lindow Scouts and Active Support.
In the second half, Bella French and Laura Toombs brought “culture” to the evening with some ballet. The tone was immediately lowered by Chris Wright and his shaving sketch (and yes I did get wet !) Tim Povall attempted to recreate the last night at the Proms and Ken Wallace got everyone singing some old favourites with his accordian. The evening finished off with the traditional “We’re riding along on the Crest of a Wave”. Did I mention, the whole evening was compered by Derek Wiles looking very smart in his dinner jacket.
Everyone got a special badge and, more importantly, sixty points towards their Cheshire Challenge! Many thanks to Jackie Toombs and her extensive team for a super evening. Will there be a competition next year ………..let’s see!
Fact of the evening, Harold Horry our illustrious President confessed that he sang in the hall when he was at school in, I think he said, 1937 !
Just got back from a Young Leaders Weekend at Linnet Clough. What a great time the Explorers had. Friday, we had film in the forest (St. Trinnians if you have to know !). Up bright and early Saturday morning for sausage, bacon and scrambled eggs. Then we got stuck into the young leader modules, I did the communications module then Jackie was demonstrating knot tieing with liquorish - good news is, when you got the knot right you got to eat it ! Then onto learning how to make a zip pull with Chris. Then we made a hammock which was strong enough to hold an elephant (I may be slightly exagerating !). Chris's demonstration of how how to light a fire with a bunch of flowers was slightly mared by him cutting his thumb and bleeding over eveything. Still, Carolyn was great at waving the torch round to start the fire. Then we went up to "The Cube" the high wire activity. Everyone had a go. Michael was embarassed by Laura. Ben who is afraid of heights was a star. Carolyn was tempted to show how good she was and the special one got her shoe lace stuck and almost got the emergency instructor out of his warm hut. Josh was Josh ! We slept well !
Sunday the Explorers did archery and shooting before packing up for the return home. Thanks guys for a good weekend.
The District kicked off its Centenary Celebrations with a Sunrise Ceremony at Terra Nova School on 17/18th September 2011. These are the words that District Commissioner shared with the District at 6.42am on the Sunday Morning:
Address given to the Scouts and Leaders of Alderley District Scout Council at the Sunrise Ceremony on Sunday the 18th September 2011 by the District Commissioner, Stephen Buckley.
Brother and Sister Scouts, Welcome to the start of our Centenary Year ! – A hundred years of scouting in Alderley!!
A Centenary is a really just an excuse for big birthday celebration. So yes, we will have a cake, we will have a party, we will sing songs and have a great deal of fun ! But what else do you do when you have a birthday party with your family ?
You start sharing memories and stories. You start laughing and enjoying the things that you have shared together. The old people say “Well, if your Gran was here, she would have really enjoyed that” and the youngsters say “What was it like to watch black and white television, dad ?”
Well, I have brought along three things to show you from my Scouting Memories:
· First thing is my camp fire blanket. Its one of my most valued possessions. Why ? Well it has memories of all my Scout camps and trips, Badges I swapped and collected in my 45 years of scouting.
· The second thing is my Queen Scouts Award. I can remember the Expedition and what a long way it was. More importantly I can remember going to Windsor Castle to the QSA Parade. It was a glorious Summers Day and I was very lucky, I got to take my own band because just like our Band my local Band had won the National Competition and were there playing alongside the Guards Band
· My third is a jacket I got given when I worked on the Boy Scouts of America summer camp when I was 21. What a fantastic time I had that summer. It was glorious, sunny and we got to spend three months swimming and messing about on the water. When I got home I was a bronzed god, apart from my feet and middle where I was English pearly white !
Why am telling you these things ? Well, being a Scout gives you fantastic opportunities and I want you to go for them, big time ! I want every single one of you to achieve the QSA and the Gold DoE, I want you to go camping and on expeditions, I want you to go to the Jamborees and understand how you can just walk up to Scouts you don’t know and say hello, I want you to experience the Explorer Belt – anyone done that ?
And, if you enjoy your time in Scouts, I want you to get your Wood Badge and to invest your first young person…….
I am challenging each one of you. I want you to work towards achieving your CSA this year. I want every single one of to achieve it or make real progress. I want you all to earn it, I don’t want you to take the easy option, I want you to really challenge yourself. I want us to break the record books.
Leaders, if you haven’t got your Wood Badge, this is the year !
Now, I have set you a challenge, I am going to make it more interesting. This jacket, I am going to give to boy or girl working towards their CSA this year and who most impresses their leaders with their determination and commitment. It could be a Beaver, Cub, Scout or Explorer. I will award it at the Sunset ceremony a year from now.
So I thank you all for coming, and hope you have enjoyed yourself. I look forward to seeing you all next year for the sun set ceremony.
 A nice photo of the Band at County Scout Sunday looking very smart in their new District neckers. What you can't see is that they were absolutely soaked (as were the rest of us !). Thanks to Judith for the photo
This year we invited Cubs, Scouts and Explorers who had completed their Chief Scouts or Queen Scouts Award accompanied by Leaders who had recently completed their Wood Badge. We had a coach which travelled the length of the District picking up keen and eager Scouts as it went. It was raining when we got on the coach, raining when we got off, raining when we paraded (basically, to cut a long story short, it rained all the time !). We had twenty seven scouts on parade and very smart they looked. We had borrowed Holmes Chapels coats and with the new District neckers we looked very smart. The Band were at the front of the parade and they were wearing their District neckers for the first time. We were at the back of the parade. The cathedral was great (and dry) and we had a Rock Band instead of an organist. Simon "the Bugle" did a great fanfare to start the service and it didn't last too long. The parade back was equally damp. Maddie was our Flag Bearer - the flag was three times her size but she did a great job. On the way home we did a surprise award of a Wood Badge to Gill Beeley and ate and drank all the remaining snacks !
The leaders at the front had an interest chat about our proposed talent competition "Alderley has talent". It will be part of our centenary celebrations, be there !
Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire Scout Counties run a Theme Park ticket agency to raise money for Scouting and to offer Theme Park Tickets to Scouting & Guiding members at a cheaper rate. Link
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ZaVjxduf3c&feature=player_embedded
Thanks to all the leaders and parents who made sure all the Scouts, Cubs and Beavers from the District had a fantastic time. There was a good article in the local press re Jake - he looks smart - more than can be said for the DC ! (Well it was camp !)
http://www.alderleyedge.com/news/article/2885/jake-makes-his-mark-in-history-as-scouts-celebrate-100-years
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