On the final night of term, it was all aboard with our mob buddies from Upper Mt Gravatt when we visited the Union Pacific Model Railway club.  The two mobs got to know each other through some great games – dog and bone, shark island and marshmallow relays – before they trekked through the park to the model railway.

And the looks on their faces when they spied the treasures within? Priceless!

The members very kindly allowed the mobs to get up close to the village and models –

Not even the leaders were immune to the wonder of the railway.  Bagheera got to use the controller and blow the whistles and horns on the train, Wolf poked around the workroom, Eagle loved every minute and Rikki just looked chuffed!

The mob always love visiting the Union Pacific Railway group each year and look forward to the start of their Adventure Challenge badge.  Thank you again for letting us visit.  Oh and parents, the club is always looking for new enthusiasts to join them!

Yours in Scouting,

Bagheera and Wolf.

With gloves, hats and a keen sense of wonder the Joeys visited Beelarong Community Farm on Saturday 12 September.

This visit was the final task in the mob earning their international ‘World Scout Environment Badge’ and what a learning experience it was!  The joeys met our guide for the day – Mitch.  Mitch was a scout in Canada (which the joeys loved hearing about) and was a fantastic guide for the joeys. He took them on a tour of the farm and explained the workings of a permaculture community farm to them – how a community farm works and what they grow, what a solar panel is, what is a compost heap,how a grey water system operates and most importantly, how a self composting toilet works.

The joeys were given the opportunity to practice their gardening skills and assisted the farm by weeding the seedling greenhouses and popping the collected weeds into the compost heaps. 

They also had a blast harvesting the potatoes for the community and as a reward were all given a bag of their freshly dug potatoes to take home!

Watering the herb gardens as next on the agenda and the joeys loved seeing the many different kinds of herbs in the garden beds.

   More exciting was filling the watering cans from the rain water tanks. Then it was on to checking out the native bee hives with Kevin (the garden manager) and getting up close and personal with the worms in the worm farms.

The very weary joeys were all presented with their World Scout Environment badges to end a very productive and interesting morning.  BRAVO to Mitch and Kevin for letting us visit.

Information for Beelarong is available at:www.beelarong.org.au and they have open mornings each week if you would like to visit.

Yours in Scouting,

Bagheera and Wolf

The sun was shining, 1300 cubs and joeys were buzzing around and the stage was set for another fantastic Skillorama.  Victor Joeys, and some cub siblings, were ready for another adventure based on this years theme – ‘ Country and Farm’.

And the activity bases were awesome!  Planting seeds,,

scarecrow stuffingsack races                                                  ,

egg and spoon, milking the cows were just a few.  Between the activity bases, the joeys also managed to squeeze in visits to the woggle makers, air activity and environment teams stations, badge club, gem stone club and lunch.  Phew!  So much to do and so little time.

All the youth members went home exhausted but thrilled to have a badge and show bag to show everyone what a brilliant day they had. And I’ve heard that they all slept in the next day as an extra bonus for Dad on Fathers Day.

Yours in Scouting,

Bagheera and Wolf.

During Term 3 the Joeys focused on the Environment and celebrated Scouts in Action month (August) with a month long celebration of the environment – at home, in their community and also the world.  But along the way, they also had some fantastic nights with Clifton Hill and Upper Mt Gravatt mobs, took part in Joey Jaunt and Skillorama, celebrated Fathers Day, checked out the Union Pacific Model trains and spent a morning in a community farm!

Horizontal Abseiling night.

What is Horizontal abseiling?  Read on to find out….

The mob started a new term with a night aimed at building friendship and developing the Joey law – “A Joey Scout Cares, A Joey Scout shares’.  Adventure and fun were the order of the night as the Joeys played games that involved working together and helping each other to complete the challenges.  After this, Dan led the Joeys through some abseiling training by ‘explaining the ropes’!  The mob learned about the buddy system, safety with ropes and harnesses, and were shown the knots that are used in abseiling.  Once all of the mob knew the rules and safety for the activity, Dan and Charlie helped each of the Joeys into a harness and then the ‘horizontal’ fun began. Horizontal abseiling involves using the same techniques that you need for regular vertical abseiling, but travailing across a horizontal surface ( eg hall floor, easement etc).  The Joeys absolutely loved the adventure of horizontal abseiling and it was a wonderful start to the new term.

Toohey District Joey Campfire.

Torrential rain, wind and winter cold couldn’t prevent the Joeys coming together for the district Joey campfire at Upper Mt Gravatt den.  Rather than a traditional campfire outdoors, the district leaders took the whole production inside and the result? A terrific night of campfire traditions by lantern!  Emu and Raven led the joeys through campfire songs, Raven and Bagheera performed some skits ( ask the joeys about the Big Chief skit!) and Bagheera helped the cubs with a very exciting production of ‘the Bubble-gum’ skit.  Energetic renditions of Three Chocolate Éclairs, Mamma Shark and Galumph meant that the joeys were all ready for the shared supper that followed.  Each joey and cub that attended were also given a campfire badge for their collection.  What a fantastic way to celebrate being a Joey on a cold wet night.

Buddy night walk with Clifton Hill mob.

Sixteen very excited Joeys from Victor and Clifton Hill went for a night walk in Toohey Forest as a way of introducing the two mobs and starting their Buddy Challenge badge. The Joey leader from Clifton Hill led the mobs along the tracks and the joeys all tried to spot wildlife with their torches.  Mid way around, we all stopped for a well earned break – drinks and snakes –

before heading off to meet the parents at the drop off point.  For some of the Joeys, this was their first night spotlight walk and they all enjoyed the experience.

Medieval Fun.

With 2015 being a special year for the Joey section – 25th Anniversary – all of the mobs in SEQ were looking forward to Joey Jaunt this year.  And when it was announced that the them would be ‘ Joeys Scouts of the Round Table’ , how could we resist having a medieval buddy night too?  Clifton Hill mob visited us to move it ‘medieval’ style. Each joey made a medieval ID badge displaying their medieval Knight/Lady name and added a picture of themselves, before moving on to make their own shields ( they each had to design their own device design).  Stealth skills were employed in ‘Hug a Tree’ and spotlight outside.  Then all of the joeys donned bike helmets to learn pool noodle jousting with shields.  Huzzah to the fun had by all!  Thank you to Raven for lending us the pool noodles and shields.

As you can see from the programme below, the remainder of term 3 was filled with so many exciting events and happenings. They deserve their own posts so that you can see the photos of the many adventures shared by Victor mob.

Yours in scouting,

Bagheera and Wolf

It was with much excitement that the mob came back after the long summer holidays.  They were all looking forward to another exciting scouting year of adventure, challenges, fun and friendship.  And that is just what they got during Term1.

Here are a few of the highlights of term 1:

Advancement from Joey to Cub section.

One of the most exciting things that happen for the Joeys is when they move up from the Joey mob and are invested into the Cub section.  And Seraphina achieved this just before Founders Day!  She completed her Promise Challenge work, undertook her link badge and celebrated her next big adventure in scouting with her friends in the mob.  BRAVO Seraphina on all your hard work and good luck in the pack.

HOP, BP and Founders Day.

With the date postponed due to cyclones, the district celebrated Founders Day (BP’s birthday) with our annual service followed by the JACS (Joey and Cub Scouts) section rally.  There were all kinds of wonderful bases being run by our dedicated sections leaders – marshmallow cannons, rope bridges and climbing.  Victor Joeys ran the birthday code breaker base and challenged the cubs and Joeys to crack the code and learn some interesting facts about BP!  And the icing on the cake?  A special collector badge of course!

Harmony Day Pack attack with the Cubs!

To celebrate international Harmony Day, the joeys and cubs joined forces to share a night exploring this years theme – “Everyone Belongs”.  The youth members took part in games, activities and fun before they shared supper.  Congratulations to all those who came along and earned their special event badges.

Earth Hour, Lights out!

As part of their Environment Challenge, the Joeys celebrated Earth Hour in true Joey style!  The hall was set up like a huge tent with lanterns, cushions and a ‘campfire’ and the joeys took part in the recycling theme of the night by creating their own ‘up-cycled’ outfits from newspaper before constructing paddle pop stick harmonicas.  And of course, what campfire would be complete without a few songs?  ‘Three Chocolate éclairs’ and ‘My Aunt came back’ were the joeys choice.

Oh, and Bagheera took part in a Branch training day exploring Australia’s First Nation Peoples.  The leaders learnt about bush craft, boomerang throwing and cultural knowledge.  It was a fantastic day of knowledge sharing and a wonderful opportunity.  Thank you to the Branch Joey Scout Commissioner for organising it.

Yours in Scouting,

Bagheera and Wolf