On Saturday 8 Feb, Del & Auntie Beaver held their annual Quiz Night to raise much needed funds. An excellent night was had by the 10 teams and £205 was raised, with a further £10 generously donated at the end of the evening. The quiz results were very close, but this years winners were the Monteith, Enever, Hannah & O’Brien collaboration taking away the prize of chocolate and bubbly.
With your help we collected a fantastic number of Sainsbury’s Active Kids vouchers this year. The final count was 23,079 and they have been put to good use with new equipment to help us provide an active and balanced programme without increasing subscriptions. Once again thanks to all our parents and friends for letting us have your vouchers and a big thanks to Wendy for painstakingly counting out the vouchers and managing the ordering process. A picture below of all the items we were able to get. Continue reading
You had to be there to appreciate the amount of mud or the amount of fun had by those who attended. If you weren’t there, perhaps next year? Below are a few pictures to capture the memories.
On the 7th December 2013, accompanied by family, Charlie of the Earley-Troop, attended the County’s Chief Scout Gold Award presentations at Holy Trinity Church, Margate, where he was commended for his achievements as a Scout by dignitaries from within the Scouting movement. Having linked with the Johnston ESU he will be invested as an Explorer Scout at Gilwell Park, when we attend WinterCamp in a few weeks. Well done and good luck at Explorers. 
It was a relatively mild Sunday morning when over 100 members of 5th Dartford Scout Group paraded down West Hill, with each section’s flags flying. Their destination was the Methodist Church in Spital Street.
There we were all given a warm welcome by the congregation and joined in with their normal Sunday Service.
During the service, There were readings from Calum, George, Nathan & Nathaniel and following Paul’s summary of the year, a presentation for ‘Scout of the Year’, which this year went to the Earley-Troop’s James O’Brien and joint runners up Christopher Roscoe and Nathan Hart of Burne-Troop. After the service, refreshments were enjoyed by all before we paraded back.
After dismissal back at the hall, the Scouts and Explorers went bag packing at Crayford Sainsburys to help raise funds for the new hall and an adventurous activity in the New Year. Meanwhile 70 Beavers and Cubs remained and enjoyed a buffet lunch followed by traditional party games until 3pm. This was a record amount of Beavers and Cubs to attend so the party was pretty hectic but fun nevertheless.
At 5-15pm on Thursday 12th December Sainsbury’s at Crayford suddenly came alive to the sounds of carols being sung by over 70 5th Dartford Beavers and Cubs accompanied by their Leaders and some very willing parents/grandparents.
All wearing festive hats and great big beaver smiles. The big orange buckets soon started to fill with loose change from the generous customers as they finished their shopping.
After an hour and a half of singing and countless wishes of Merry Christmas the children went home tired and thirsty having raised the magnificent sum of £306.39 towards the Groups New Hall Fund.
Well done everyone who took part. I was very proud of you all.
Many Thanks too, to Sainsbury’s for giving us the opportunity to raise these funds.
Auntie Beaver
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We were recently awarded £500 by Kent Police to purchase new archery and rifle shooting equipment, following our Fundraising Team’s successful application to the Kent Police Property Fund.
The Kent Police Property Fund holds money generated from the sale, at auction, of unclaimed lost property and items seized in police operations. All the money raised at such auctions is used to help local charities support their work in the local community.
Maggie and Jim Lilleycrop kindly accepted the cheque on behalf of 5th Dartford Scouts.
The 5th Dartford Scout Group’s Leigh Pack won the Asda Living Community Award @ Prospect Place in November, thanks to shoppers voting us the most worthy cause, by popping their little green discs in our bucket.
Akela John, accompanied by older cub Thomas, were presented with a cheque for £100, to be split 50/50 between the pack and the new hall fund. 
Local Heroes is Sainsbury’s scheme to recognise and reward the amazing contribution their staff make to charities and activities in the local community. The scheme offers matched funding for employees raising funds for charity and one such hero is Christina Boyd, who raised £190 for the 5th Dartford Scout Group this September, which Sainsbury’s have matched. This generous contribution is in addition to our status as Sainsbury’s Crayford’s local charity of the year where the staff and management are going all out to help us with our fundraising for our programme of adventurous activities for our young members. Well done Christina and thank you Sainsbury’s. 