Dear Fellow Scouts,
Greetings from Dartford, Kent in England! We hope this letter finds you well. Our names are Oliver, Olivia, Alex and Evie and we are Scouts at 5th Dartford. As part of our exciting journey towards achieving the World Scout Award badge, we’ve been tasked with reaching out to scouts
like you from around the globe, and are excited to connect with you. Our scout group was created in 1916 by Scoutmaster A B “Skipper” Leigh. Back then 5th Dartford wore salmon pink neckerchiefs, but we now wear red scarfs. We are members of the
Early Scout troop (named after Titch Early, who was a leader in the 1940s). Early troop meets on Friday evenings. Typically, we learn survival and outdoor skills. As its England (where it can rain sometimes!) we usually meet indoors and take part in sporting games including Bench ball (a ball game where the first team who gets all its members to stand on a bench wins!), Football (soccer) and Poison Ivy (bit like individual tug-of-war). We also do archery, air rifle shooting and climbing. As a group, we take part in lots of camping – here are some photos from an Air Camp from last year, where we got to fly in a microlight aircraft –
http://www.5thdartfordscouts.org.uk/index.php/nggallery/album/airtcamp2023?page_id=11821).
One of the things we enjoy most about Scouts is our close friendships. It would be great to learn a bit about your scout group. How many scouts are in your group, and what skills and games do you enjoy doing? Are you doing any camps over the summer? We look forward to hearing from you.
Yours in scouting,
Oliver, Olivia, Alex and Evie
Back in June, 13 Scouts and Explorers from the 5th signed up to the National Small-Bore Rifle Association – Youth Proficiency Scheme (NSRA-YPS) course, 10 first timers and 3 retaking to improve their skill level. Starting in July, the young people attended weekly sessions to learn everything from setting up a range, equipment, the law, safety, eye dominance, stance, & breathing to the follow through, sighting, sight adjustment and scoring; concluding with a multiple choice exam and a shooting competition. In order to qualify for the competition a quiz of 10 randomly selected true/false statements was taken, where a minimum of seven must be answered correctly; these points are also added to the 4 scoring cards for the total score. Each card has the potential score of 50 points with 5 shots at each, making the maximum possible score of 210, including the quize score.
For the third consecutive year we participated in Thriftwood #InTents# having great memories of the previous camps. With six leaders and 10 Scouts and 15 Explorers fully prepared and ready to go with new chariots and flags.
With the incredibly wet weather we have had, it was unfortunate that a number of accommodation huts were decommissioned, however working with the camp site we were able to accommodate the Explorers in the serviceable village huts with alternative accommodation being provided for the Scouts in the Barcwood building by the fishing lake. 
This year we celebrated our 107th anniversary with our Birthday Parade on Sunday 3rd December. We converged at the hall at 10am where we formed up, and sorted out our colours to be presented, parading with our flags from the hall to the URC Church in Spitall Street, were we where warmly welcomed by the congregation. 
The advance party arrived at our pitch @14:30 and despite earlier rain our allocation was favourable and the weather was kind to us for setting up camp even if squelchy underfoot. More leaders and 15 young people, 6 of whom were first timers at Bisley, arrived after dark and stowed their kit before a team briefing where everyone was given a lanyard, map and an aid-memoir to help them to be in the right place at the right time for their events.