Year 2008
Arctic Fox first met on 10th Jan 2008. We
opened up with seven young members, coming from 1st Middleton on
Sea, 1st Felpham Sea Scouts and also Guides. This mixture of young
people has certainly brought in a diverse range of experiences, which are being
shared amongst each other. Each explorer in the unit is free to choose whether
they wear sea, air or land uniforms, whereby representing their own upbringing
in the scouting movement.
The unit has had a fantastic start and we have already been involved in
activities such as Night Orienteering, Bouldering, Chinese cooking, Ultimate
Frisbee & Disc Golf, Night Hike/Navigation and Various Scouting skills. We
recently have been wall climbing at Chichester College, as I have now qualified
for my scout permit in top rope climbing. We have shown an involvement with a
couple of local scout groups and have invited a few of the older Scouts to join
in with some of our activities, the most recent being a day trip to Go-Ape at
Leeds Castle.
Within the unit the ‘Duke of Edinburgh’s Award’ is actively encouraged
and currently we have two explorers working towards Silver Award and one
towards Bronze Award. We also have one explorer, Matthew Baker-Irons, who has
achieved his Chief Scouts Platinum Award.
As explorers the young people are encouraged to plan
their own activities and this has certainly been the case for the second term
with Cycle Rides, Shooting and Finnish Nights being organised by them.
We have also joined up with other explorer units in
West Sussex to carry out some of the competitive hikes/expeditions that are
organised. We had Matthew Farrant, Oliver Lewis and Matthew Baker-Irons join up
with three explorers from Excelsior ESU in Findon and entered the Foresters
hike. This was an incident hike based around Broadstone Warren. Despite the
appalling weather conditions all explorers did superbly well and finished in
first place, bringing the trophy back home with them. In the Overland Hike
Oliver Lewis and Matthew Farrant joined up with explorers from Tsunami and
Gryffin ESU’s. Another great result as they finished ninth in this event out of
about thirty-five other explorer units that entered.
The whole unit joined the Young Leaders camp (their
first camp) at the spur, along with explorers from Tsunami ESU. At this camp
the young people went through the majority of the modules that make up the
Young Leader training along with games and activities, it was a very good
balance. It also certainly brought out some more of the explorers characters.
Our main fundraising activity so far has been a
sponsored ‘Monopoly Challenge’ in London of which we raised £438.28. This
challenge involved travelling around London by foot, tube and bus to visit all
26 sites that appear on the Monopoly Board. Everyone had a great day out and it
certainly was a cultural experience for all of us. The monies raised from this
event are to be split 50/50 with the charity ‘Children with Leukaemia’.
Our investitures were carried out
3 metres down in the Ice House in Bognor, the site was chosen as it is in
keeping with the name of the unit.
Although no summer camp has been organised. We have
one of our explorers going to Finland with 1st Felpham Sea Scouts
and three other explorers going to WS2008.
As a leader I have certainly enjoyed
the first six months with Arctic Fox, the young people in the unit are a great
bunch and look forward to many more exciting activities to come.
Thank
you,
Simon Baker-Irons.