Week 2: September 16-19

September 20, 2024

The Scouts were chosen to give Allesley Park a tidy as they're old enough to spread further apart from James, Katy, Rob & Bali. Thankfully, the Friends of Allesley Park seem to keep things fairly litter free, and they only managed to find 3 bags worth of litter on Monday, though a couple of the Scouts seemed to think that dried grass was litter. 🙄 They came back to the hut for their fire-lighting race (a new weekly addition to the programme), as well as to play ladders and human basketball. Congratulations to the Tigers on winning the fire-lighting race!

A group of Scouts are picking litter in their local park as the sun sets. One carries a bag holder and a litter picker while the rest carry their own litter pickers.Four Scouts watch their appointed teammate attempt to get a fire started using a ferro rod, striker, cotton wool, sawdust and tinder wood. He managed to be the first to get the tinder to stay lit!Two rows of Scouts are seated spaced on the floor, legs straight out in front of them, feet touching the feet of the Scout opposite them. Two Scouts are running the length of the rows, racing each other.

The Cubs walked along Guphill Brook to litter pick on Tuesday evening, between Whitaker Road and the A45 underpass. Again, it seems like there's been a recent litter pick, most likely around the time of the mural being extended. The brook wasn't full of trash as it has been in the past, with only a few items there (Naomi retrieved what little there was), and the Cubs found 4 bags of rubbish total. We'll have to go balsam bashing later in the year, as there is a lot of it in seed along the brook. The Cubs seemed to enjoy themselves and were excited to see the supermoon glowing in the sky as we finished.

A group of Cubs are spread out along the grass and path, litter pickers in hand, looking for any scraps of rubbish they can find. The sun is low in the sky and the Cubs have smiles on their faces.A young Cub raises a crushed drinks can in his litter picker, to drop it into the bag being carried by the volunteer adult, an expression of concentration on his face.A group of Cubs holding litter pickers are standing and crouching in front of a new mural of wildlife and plantlife along the underpass. Most Cubs are smiling and some are making silly faces.

The Beavers were left to clear the castle mound spinney next to the hut of rubbish, and they took this very seriously! They walked every bit they could get into and cleared an incredible 10 bags of rubbish from that small area. Sadly, every time we pick the castle mound, we find signs of alcohol and substance abuse by the local youth and this time was no different. There was also the entire contents of a Year 10 student's backpack, some of which had been set alight at some point. 😱 The Beavers couldn't believe how much trash there was to collect and were determined to get every last bit, even trudging through the mud under the tree branches to grab everything they could spot.

A group of Beavers, litter pickers in hand, are collecting rubbish in a woodland setting. A teenage volunteer holds a bag for them to drop their trash into as they find it.Two young Beavers carrying litter pickers collect rubbish in a wooded area. They are accompanied by an adult volunteer carrying the bag of rubbish, as one of the Beavers raises her picker to drop an item into the bag while the other looks intently on the ground.Two Beavers are collecting soaked and torn school notebooks and papers next to a large log in a woodland. Another Beaver reaches over the log with her litter picker to collect some of the rubbish. Two partially full bags are resting on top of the log for the Beavers to continue filling.A group of Beavers stand on top of a capped medieval well, an adult volunteer stands next to them, with a pile of bags full of rubbish they've collected in front of them, proud expressions on their faces.

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