A day packed with fun and adventure.
Today, Wednesday 3 August, eight of our Beavers and Cubs got up early (for the school holidays!) and met at The Meres to travel to Junior Poacher 2022. Junior Poacher gives Beavers, Cubs, Rainbows and Brownies aged 5-10 years old from Lincolnshire Scouts, Girlguiding Lincolnshire North and Girlguiding Lincolnshire South a taste of all that Poacher has to offer, with a tailored, jam-packed range of adventurous and creative activities!
After a short 45 minute coach journey to Lincolnshire Showground, we were checked in and given our Junior Poacher wristbands, then set off for our adventure.
Our first stop was at the giant inflatables area, to burn off a little energy. After a few minutes bouncing and sliding on giant slides some of our Beavers and Cubs had a go on the climbing wall, then everyone left their handprint on a giant piece of Junior Poacher artwork. This will be displayed at the next Poacher Jamboree!
After a few more activities we headed to the Foston, Caythorpe & Duke’s camping area to join our Scouts for a picnic lunch. It was lovely to hear how the Duke’s Scouts are enjoying their week and see some excellent examples of arts and crafts that have been completed at Poacher.
Pocket money was burning a hole in some purses, so we visited the shop and picked up various Poacher merchandise and badges. There may also have been some sweets... We then visited the ‘Circus Fest’ zone, with our Beavers and Cubs demonstrating their hula-hoop and unicycle skills, and having a go at many others. It was a warm day, and the water-zorbs were calling! It was a bit of a queue, but well worth it to see the smiles and laughter as the Beavers and Cubs tried to stand up in the zorbs while being squirted with water pistols. At this point, the Leaders were very jealous!!
The sun was shining and it was getting quite hot, so we decided to head to the craft area for a bit of shade, where everyone had a chance to create their own memories of Poacher. We saw key rings, woggles and glass painting amongst the activities on offer.
Suddenly the day was drawing to a close and it was time to head back to the coaches, where everyone was awarded with a badge and certificate before climbing aboard the (air conditioned) coaches and heading back to The Meres to be reunited with parents.
Junior Poacher gives our younger members a taste of what an International Jamboree feels like; hopefully our visit today has sparked their imagination and opened their eyes to the amazing opportunities available within Scouting.
Some fantastic facts:
· 8 Caythorpe & Duke’s Beavers and Cubs attended Junior Poacher today
· Around 60 Scouts, Explorers and Leaders are attending as the 1st Foston and Caythorpe Contingent for the whole week
· 500 Squirrels, Beavers, Cubs, Rainbows and Brownies visited Junior Poacher today
· 2,000 Squirrels, Beavers, Cubs, Rainbows and Brownies are expected to visit Junior Poacher this week
· Over 6,000 members of Scout & Guide sections are staying at Poacher this week
· If you add the Leaders and Support Volunteers, over 10,000 are staying at Lincolnshire Showground this week
· That’s an awful lot of tents, sleeping bags, roll mats, walking boots, bread, butter, tea, coffee, fried breakfasts, squash, hot chocolate, pasta, ice creams and showers (hopefully!) across the whole week! And hopefully not too much lost property…..
· Today we saw multiple fly-pasts of the Red Arrows, one plane at a time, who may have been taking aerial photos of the event whilst they were whizzing by 😊. And also training very hard…
Find out more at:
https://www.poacher.org.uk/
https://www.facebook.com/PoacherLincs
