This meeting: Food Drive and more...

As we do not have access to the school this week, we will be out collecting food for the local food bank.  With Thanksgiving coming up we are aware that there are many families in the area who could use as much assistance as possible, so we will be going door to door collecting non-perishable food items.
As parking at St. Francis of Assisi may be at a premium, we will meet at the South East corner of the Nantyr Shores parking lot to set up teams, and head out from there.  I have been recommended to target MacLean Street, but if anybody who lives in the area has another recommendation please send it my way.  If every child in the group (pending 28) show up we should be able to do very well by dividing into 7 groups of four.  To this point, as our new leaders are not able to be counted as part of ratio I am asking if as many parents as possible will be available to walk with their children it would be greatly appreciated.  Please supply your child with a strong shopping bag - preferably not a plastic one - to collect the food stuffs.  Also, if anybody has any boxes to hold the food items I would appreciate it.  Finally, if I could get some volunteers to follow along the kids in their vehicles to collect the items I'd appreciate it.  One vehicle per team would be perfect.
The food will be delivered to the Innisfil Community Church along with the Cubs and Scouts collected food.  We raised 500lb of food last year with the Cubs alone...I see no reason why we shouldn't able to double that this year.

Popcorn paperwork is in, and I will be handing out the forms and envelopes.at the end of the meeting.  We have two wonderful parents who have stepped up to assist with coordinating the collection of money (thank you Mandy and Lori!).  We have a fairly short window to do the sales this year...it's looking like money will need to be collected on October 21th, and the products should be available by the first week of December.

For those of you who have already received their PRC forms from me, can you please let me know if you've gotten them into South Simcoe Police?  I have more now for those who have asked...please approach me so I can get them into your hands.  I need to ensure that the plans I have for the rest of the fall and winter will work with available leaders...and I need to know how many sets of badges, scarves and neckers I need to order for investiture in October (that's right, leaders need to be invested too!).  I will have a new leader discussion either prior/post the following meeting so that everybody understands what they still need to do and/or what is expected of them as leaders in 1st Alcona Beavers.

Any questions, do not hesitate to reach out.

Ringtail

Meeting #2: International Week of Peace

We’re back on Wedneday, September 23rd at St. Francis of Assisi.  This week we celebrate the Scouting “International Week of Peace" with some games, a craft and an interesting story that I dug up.

 Because we are short handed until our new leaders all have their PRC’s completed, could I ask for some help with the craft?  I have some child sized scissors, but if anybody has a pair to bring along and be willing to work with their child it would make for short work.  Very simple craft…cutting out a dove template and tapering some paper for wings.

We are very close to 30 members of the colony now…which means we need to have at least 6 leaders at all times.  If you have interest in being a leader, if you have not yet spoken to me about it and/or you have not received a PRC form yet, please let me know.  We could use your help.  Full time, Part Time, doesn’t matter…I just value your time.

Just as a note, next week we will not be in the school due to a school booking.  However, we already have our activity planned.  The Cubs will be going around on Tuesday near Holy Cross to collect food for the food bank, and we will be doing the same in and around St. Francis on Wednesday.  Hopefully between the two groups we will raise a decent amount of food just in time for Thanksgiving.  We definitely could use your help with that, by chaperoning your children.

Another note, especially for the newest members of the colony, similar to how the girl guides raise funds by selling cookies, Boy Scouts sell Popcorn.  I have not yet received our order form packages, but if you would like to look up details you can go to http://www.scouts.ca/popcorn/ .   This is a wonderful way for us to raise funds for the group, and the benefits for your own child are excellent.  I will blog details on this asap.

Final note, at last mention, we did not yet have anybody who had taken responsibility for the 1^st Alcona Group Popcorn Coordinator.  This is a role that does not require a PRC, collects the money/maintains the numbers and coordinates getting the popcorn back to the individual families through leaders such as myself.  Not a lot of work, just too much extra for myself and the Cubs and Scouts section leaders to take on ourselves.  Let me know if this is your cup of tea.

 

Yours in Scouting,

Ringtail

Some notes for Parents

Tonight is the night!  1st Alcona Beavers are back for the 2015-2016 Scouting year. 

There is a fantastic six page document on the Scouts Canada website that I highly recommend you download and read over.  It really fills in a lot of the questions that you may have about the program and about how you and your children fit into it.

I decided not to print it out as a small rainforest would suffer as a result.

You can find it here:

http://www.scouts.ca/ca/welcome-scouting-week

Much more content coming...

Ringtail