14th November 2008 was a great day for 1st
Finchampstead as we invested the 14 founder members of the new Willows Beaver
Colony.
The Colony started in
September 2008 and has been running a successful programme every Saturday
morning led by Jo Allum and her team of leaders. All the Beavers are new to
Scouting so we decided to give them a flavour of Beavers before we went to the
stage of investing them.
The Scouts
came down to run the programme for the meeting while the leaders were able to
focus on preparing for the investiture. The weather was great so much fun was
had in the country park following a tracking trail that the Scouts had set up
and also trying to find some hidden Patrol Leaders.
The scene was now set for the Beavers to be invested. The
river that they swim up was laid out and lined by the Scouts in attendance. Jo
called up each troop, there are 3 within the colony, individually and the
Beavers in that troop placed their left hand on the Beaver and Union flags
whilst making the Scout salute with their right hand. They all then said their
Beaver promise and the 1st Finch red scarf was placed around their necks making
them a full member of the group. They then turned to salute the rest of the
colony to finish their investiture.
We had an excellent turnout from parents and friends and were
particularly pleased to have our Group President, Chris Brett, and District
Commissioner, Andy McBain at the ceremony.
The boys then experienced a "red carpet" moment as we
went outside to take numerous photographs with an array of cameras and then they
quickly devoured refreshments of doughnuts, biscuits and Juice.
A great day for the new colony and with
such a strong leadership and good group of beavers they will go from strength to
strength.
Click on the Photo below to see more pictures
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