Active Kids

Sainsbury's have stopped issuing Active Kids vouchers for this year, and we now have until 24 July to redeem our collection. If you still have any vouchers lying around looking sorry for themselves, please pass them in either to Chris Stead or to any Leader.

Leeds Half Marathon

We have received a letter of thanks from the Event Coordinator of the Leeds Half Marathon which took place on May 10th. Crofton Scout Group provided marshals and manned drinks stations for the event and in turn we have received a donation of £210.

Many thanks to all who gave of their time to help on the day.

Photographs from the day can be seen in our gallery here.

Leadership changes

Chris Stead has been asked to move into a District appointment, managing our existing and new facilities at this exciting time for Wakefield District Scouts. This is a tremendous opportunity for Chris which he has accepted, and a reflection of his excellent managment skills and scouting knowledge.

Chris has done a fantastic job within Crofton in supporting the leadership team over the past four years as Group Scout Leader (GSL), and helping to turn the Group round from the brink of closure to the success it is now. Chris has promised that he will still be a regular face within the group and will continue to support us in whatever way he can.

Karen Hodgkinson has been appointed by Wakefield District to take on the role of Group Scout Leader. Karen will be known to many within the Group, having been a Beaver Leader for several years before becoming Assistant Group Scout Leader in 2008.

The continuing support of all the enthusiastic leaders, helpers, parents and friends will ensure that Crofton remains such a great success and one of the best groups in the District.

Gift Aid Declaration call.

With our financial year end approaching we are preparing our records in anticipation of submitting this year's claim for Gift Aid from HMRC. Last year's claim netted us £800 and with your help we hope to recoup a similar figure this year. As you can imagine, this sum makes a huge difference to our finances.

Could all parents please check that you have filled in a Gift Aid Declaration if this is applicable to your circumstances. If you are not sure whether you have filled in a form, please contact me (David Brown) via e-mail and I will be able to check whether or not you are on our register. If you have more than one child in the Group then a single form may be used to cover all children, and the Declaration may remain valid for six years.

Please note, if you stop paying tax or have paid insufficient tax to cover the amount the Group will be claiming back (up to £78 per child per year) you must let us know, as we cannot make a claim for your payments.

Further information on GiftAid may be found on our Finances page, along with a link to download a blank copy of the Declaration form.

Weekly easysearch report

Here is this week's easysearch report.

Welcome to your easysearch report for Week 09 2009

Week range: 20-Feb-2009 - 26-Feb-2009

Total number of searches by all easysearch organisations...........203502

Searches by 2nd Wakefield Crofton Scout Group.................................106

Amount raised for 2nd Wakefield Crofton Scout Group..........£0.54 GBP


Well done! Keep searching....

easyfundraising cheque received

We have received a payment of £33.74 from our fundraising webshop with easyfundraising - follow this link for details of this facility. This payment relates to transactions made between October and December 2008, either from commission on sales or from easysearch web searches.

Did you know that if you use easysearch instead of Google or any other search engine and you can make a real difference to 2nd Wakefield Crofton Scout Group? By making just 10 searches a day with easysearch, you can raise around £20 a year. Why not encourage your friends, work colleagues, schools and family members to do the same. Click here to try it out. Better still, you can even easysearch directly from your browser.

Where did all that mud come from?

The No-Nonsense Parents' Guide to Scouting.


Whether your child is already in Scouting or is considering joining, the Scout Association has put together some useful resources for parents which can be seen here. Some of the sections included are:

• Parents’ frequently asked questions about Scouting
• Parents’ family information form
• Case studies relating some different experiences of parents who have enjoyed helping out
• Adventure News - an offer to subscribe to a monthly e-mail newsletter giving you the best of Scouting stories and information.

Beaver programe

hi everyone, we seem to be going from strength to strength within our beaver colony, and we would like to let you all know what exciting things will be happening in our programme until the end of March, so here we go,

9th Feb,
we are working towards our air activities badge-making paper airoplanes and para shoots.

23rd Feb,
we are celebrating lord Baden-Powell's birthday along with otters, kits and badgers, so we are having a party (yay) with games and party food.

2nd March,
we are having a visit from our very own (Mr akala) who is a police officer, to have a chat with our beavers about anything they would like to talk about.

9th March,
we are working towards our Hobbies badge, so beavers will be talking about what hobbies or other activities they take part in other than scouting.

16th March,
we are making mothers day gifts and cards

22rd March,
we will be attending Crofton church for the mothers day service which was a real hit last year with the children and parents.

23rd March,
pond dipping at Winterset, details to be arranged

30th March,
Easter celebrations, making Easter goodies, and games

Also this year we are going to arrange a beaver sleep over, there will be beaver craft day, the beaver ball and a beaver fun day plus lots lots more to be added to our programme.

we would like to thank all leaders and parents who make all our activities run with great success so THANK YOU EVERYONE,

from badger, kit and otter

Photo Gallery upgrade

Our photo gallery has been migrated to a new service, provided for free by SmugMug. Follow this link to see the new layout.

BuyAt commission

We have received a cheque for £32.31 as commission on purchases made in our BuyAt webshop.

Happy New Year to all

Please remember (as I didn't!) to check the calendar on the Events page regularly as items are being added for the coming year. Alela has provided dates for many Cubs activities, details for other sections will be added in due course.

Set it and forget it!

Thank you to all parents who have set up a standing order to pay subs. We hope that this method will prove popular as it should simplify our accounting process as well as giving parents one less item to worry about at the start of each half-term. Once set up, the bank instruction may remain in place throughout your child's time with Crofton Scout Group with no changes being necessary when they move up through the sections.