Fundraising Post...

Hi there! This is just a quick post to let you know that the 4th Offaly Scout Group - Edenderry will be bag packing in Dunne's Stores this coming Friday 12 & Saturday13 October. We'd be grateful for any help that you could offer us for this fundraising enterprise.

We are also selling our annual 12 Days of Christmas Draw tickets at the moment. While each ticket is only €2.00 the prizes are quite amazing, with the First Prize being a Family Holiday to Disney World in Florida to the value of €6,500.

Lashing Spars With Sissal Rope

The BEST thing about this draw is that any money made through selling tickets will stay with your local group. In our case we hope to be able to make enough money to be able to buy group camping gear. At the moment we are quite well off for tents, but that folks is pretty much about it! No, I exaggerate, we do own a cylinder of gas, a camping cooker, 2 balls of sissal, polypropylene rope, an axe & 2 bow saws, a lantern and cylinder, a frying pan, 3 pan cook set and a camping cooker!

Everything and anything else used by both the cubs and the scouts is either begged, borrowed or acquired. While our friends have been generous, this arrangement will have to come to an end eventually. The use of personal camping equipment by the scout group is fine at the beginning, however, it will lead to premature damage and deterioration which is both unnecessary and costly to the owners of the items concerned.

At the moment we are using kitchen utensils, pots & pans, a second cooker, second gas canister (from the scout leaders own kitchen), cool boxes x 3, lanterns x 5 and fuel, trangia stoves x 2 & methylated spirits fuel, tables x 3, portapotty & tent, etc. I'm sure you will agree that this list is quite long enough.

The End Result

If we are to deliver the One Programme to our youth members, it's essential that we have equipment, both for training and for camping. It is especially important that we are in a position to acquire the above items and more if we are to run section activities at the same time. Obviously personal gear is personal gear and it must remain as such, rather than have it assumed that it will always be available for use by the scout group. Essentially where the gear goes, so does the leader to whom it belongs!

Should you be reading this as a scout or cub parent, please don't think that this is just a general moaning session. It isn't. This truly is an appeal to your better nature to help us out with fundraising activities, now and into the future.

You may ask what happens to the annual registration fee that you've just paid. Well, €45.00 of that is sent to our National Headquarters to ensure your child's membership of Scouting Ireland, which also guarantees their being insured for all scouting activities. The remaining €5.00 goes towards the cost of purchasing badges, etc. While badges can be purchased at the scout shop by yourselves, we think that it's nicer for the youth members to be presented with their badges by the group - you know, a bit more special!

Building Altar Fires

The cost of weekly subs is just €3.00. This goes towards the cost of renting the hall, including heating and light. Anything left over is added back to cover the cost of items purchased to support the delivery of the One Programme. This said, there is very little left over!

Another cost to be borne by the group is the training of leaders to an acceptable standard. You may be aware that all our leaders or Programme Scouters are Garda Vetted. They also have to attend the Child Protection Course and several others to ensure that they and their skills are up to date. Unfortunately none of this is free leading to hefty training bills...

As you can see, this is just some food for thought, regarding the need for fund raising. If you are in a position to help us with this, we'd love to welcome you onto our parents and friends committee, or as a pair of hands in the right place at the right time. Please don't be shy about helping you child's dreams of adventure come true, get involved, lend a hand and who knows? The sky's the limit...