One of the new cabins in Bonaly – thanks to the hard work of our members raising money at the Tattoo!

We are proud of what we do for Scouting – so let’s tell everyone about it! We are holding an event at Bonaly Scout Centre on Saturday 21 September when we can have fun, learn some Scouting skills and get to know Bonaly better. All leaders, youth members, their parents and friends will be invited to see just how much they can get out of being a leader or volunteer.

The focus of the day will be for young and old to try out new activities, play some games, or have a free go on the High Ropes course. It is a chance for young people to tick off their Our Adventure Challenge Award, or, for those of you who want a less active time, you can have a good chat with people you haven’t seen for some time and just walk round Bonaly seeing all the improvements that have been made. We’ve been investing a lot of money in Bonaly and it’s rapidly getting rid of that ‘tired look’. You will be surprised by what you see!

Bonaly will be open from 10.00 to 4.00 and you can spend as long or as little time as you like. There will be tea, coffee and biscuits provided, or you can try out the backwoods cooking.   It is casual – no uniform – just come in something Scouty: hoodies, fleeces, or a necker.

We will be needing lots of leaders, volunteers, and Explorers and Scouts to help run the activities, so please look out for more information and look forward to joining in what will be a great day. Oh, and by the way, the wet weather programme will be the same as the fine weather programme but with anoraks on!  And somewhere amongst all this will be the Region AGM.

More information coming soon in the April newsletter.

Scouting is coming home to Bonaly!

Margery Naylor, Regional Commissioner

Work of the Bonaly Business Planning Group is progressing well and we are fortunate that Mark Campbell, our new Centre Manager, is joining us at the meetings, despite not officially starting until Monday 6 May.   Our next step is to pull together all the work done by individual members of the Group and we are meeting at Bonaly next weekend to do that.

 Particularly exciting is the work on looking at what activities are being offered at Bonaly and what else we could offer – as well as our prices for activities! We know that Mark will come with loads of ideas, but we need to know what you want at the centre.

Do you want more high adrenaline activities or more self-led activities that tie directly into badges and programmes?  Do you want contacts for people that can run local activities like mountain biking or alpaca walking? Neil Kirk, our Activities Manager at Bonaly, is working on this so if you have any thoughts or ideas, or maybe something you have seen on another site, please email him directly neil.kirk@sesscouts.org.uk   And don’t forget that Neil can also help you plan your camps and events to make the best use of the activities we currently offer. 

Judith Wood

District Commissioner, Braid District, and Chair of the Bonaly Business Planning Group