October 6 - Investiture Night

This evening we will be investing our new Beavers!

The following Beavers will be formally welcomed into the colony:

Evan Baxter

Cameron Boese

Brendan Brophy

Roy Coleman

Patrick L'Anglais

Curtis Leahy

Tommy MacDonald

Ryan Mortimer

Harrison O'Reilly

Noah Royz

Joeseph Sreih

Alexander St Pierre

Mason Theriault

Benjamin Tibbo

During the investiture ceremony, your beaver will be asked to recite the Beaver Law, Promise and Motto:

Law: A Beaver has fun, works hard, and helps his family and friends.

Promise: I promise to love God and help take care of the world.

Motto: Sharing, sharing, sharing

You can help your child prepare by going over these with them at home, but not to worry, we will be on hand to help them through it all. The do not need to have them memorized, but they usually feel a little more relaxed if they know what they will be asked.

During the investiture your child will be presented with their necker and woggle. Thanks to everyone who has brought a necker in. Unfortunately it seems the Scout Shop ran out of neckers. This is not overly surprising as we are the only Group in the area that still uses the traditional blue Beaver necker. All the other groups have custom made neckers in the Group colours. (I will bring this up at the next Group meeting to see if we should also move away from the blue neckers to the Group one in the future. The problem is finding someone who can sew them together for us - anyone interested?) I will try to scrounge enough neckers together in order for everyone to have a necker at investiture night. If I can't, your child will still be invested, but we will wait to present the neckers until we have enough for everyone.

Feel free to stay and take pictures. This is a big event in your child's time at Beavers.

Returning Beavers will also receive their new tail tonight. You can replace the existing tail on their hat with the new one, and the old tail can be sewn on their campfire blanket.

Of course, there will also be lots of games, perhaps some songs ...

October 3 - Apple Day

September 29 - Apples, Apples, Apples!

In preparation for Apple Day on Oct 3rd, we will be having a night themed around Apples!

Equipment Needed - Your child will need to bring a fruit basket to decorate.

H1N1 Information

There may be many questions concerning H1N1 flu this season. Scouts Canada is monitoring the situation, and details will be promulgated as requried.

The best defence is common sense. We ask that you keep your child at home if they are not feeling well. In addition, we will have some hand sanitizer available at our meetings.

For more information, you can read the letter from the Executive Commissioner here:
http://www.scouts.ca/dnn/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=oIlVb%2fEWIp4%3d&tabid=36

Popcorn Campaign has started!

Our main fundraiser of the year has started!

Beavers will receive their popcorn sales package on Sep 22 to start selling.

This is the main fundraiser that directly benefits your child. Approximately 50% of your sales are returned directly to our colony. Therefore, it is the one opportunity for us to collect the necessary funds to have a quality program. Your help and encouragement is appreciated.

Your child will being home the package which will have all the details explained. There are prizes for obtaining certain amounts of sales. In addition, the Beaver in the Colony that brings in the most sales will also receive a Lego robot toy.

Completed sales forms and money will be due back to the Colony NO LATER THAN October 27.

September 22 - Lodges

Lodge night will be centered around splitting the kids into "Lodges", or smaller groups within the colony. Many activities we do (i.e. crafts) are better managed in smaller groups. Your child will be assigned to a lodge and receive their lodge badge (which is sewn on the pocket of the Beaver vest).

Typically we have an activity where they create a lodge flag and some games to work together with their new lodge buddies.

We will also be working on the Beaver law, motto and promise, which your child needs to know to be invested into the colony. (Don't worry too much, we typically help them out with this. They don't need to have it memorized!).

Note - For our Apple Day meeting on Sept 29, your child will need a fruit basket. This is in preparation for Apple Day on Oct 3rd.

Apple Day - Oct 3rd

Our first fundraiser of the year, Apple Day, will be held on October 3rd. This is the first Saturday of Oct. This is one of our major fundraisers, and funds raised from this effort are typically spent on leader training, group equipment and other adminstrative expenses.

Typically, Apple Day consists of the Beavers canvassing the neighbourhood for support for our program. We typically canvass in the morning, and have a BBQ lunch afterwards.

More details will be coming, but please mark your calendar now!

First night - September 15 - Get to Know You

Hello everyone!

Welcome (or welcome back) to A Colony!

Our first regular meeting night will be September 15. As always, we will be meeting at St Jerome School from 6:!5 - 7:15 pm.

You can use the front door to the school, and proceed to the gym, which is just off the main foyer to the left. During wet weather or winter meetings, please leave your wet footwear and jackets in the foyer and not in the gym. However, if you are changing footwear, make sure you bring something to put on your feet in the gym!

Our first night will be themed around "Get to Know You". We will be playing some ice-breaker type games, and get the kids interacting so the new Beavers feel welcome.

For safety reasons, it is necessary that you check your child in and out with a leader. Therefore, as you come in, please look for the leader with the binder to check in. Also, on the way out, please check out with the leader with the binder to ensure we know your child is leaving. If someone other that the parents of the child are picking them up, please ensure we know ahead of time.

Keep watching our blog for up-to-date info on what is happening at Beavers each week. Information will be posted here as a central location for information. If you have any questions, look here for the answers. If the answers are not here, send me an e-mail to beavers_colony_a@rogers.com and I will post the answer here.

Thanks and see you at the Beaver Dam!

Nick Torrington-Smith
"Chatter"

Stuff to get for new Beavers

Hello All! Welcome to A Colony!

If you are new to our colony this year, this is what you need to know to start the year off right!

Uniform
Beaver uniforms are available at the Scout shop on Baseline Road. Your Beaver will need a vest, hat, necker (scarf) and woggle (the little clip that holds the necker on). There are t-shirts and long sleeve t-shirts for sale as well, but these are not mandatory uniform items.

Beavers will not wear their necker or woggle until they are invested into the group formally. During this ceremony, we will present the necker and woggle to your child. Therefore, when you purchase these items, you can bring them the first night and hand them to a leader and we will keep them until we present them to your child on investiture night (currently schedule for the first week of Oct).

We will provide all the badges requried and the tail for the hat.

Scout Blanket
In the past we have been lucky enough to have corporate sponsorship to provice scout blankets for all our Beavers. Uunfortunately this is no longer the case. This year we are investigating some options, but it may not be possible to provide a scout blanket for all our new Beavers. I will let you know conclusively later (our first camp fire will be in Oct). if we are unable to get sponsorship, scout blankets are also available at the Scout Shop. This is not a mandatory item to have, but most Beavers will have one and they are typically used on our camp fire evenings.

That's it! Everything else will be provided throughout the year, or you will be told if there is something special requried for any of our activities.

Have a great year at Beavers!