Grants, Rabbits, Violins, Saxophones, Monopoly & Dartmoor Legends!! March so far.....

Spot the stripes - can you see what is hidden in part of the branding for the UK contingent?

Sophie's Unit 78 have revealed their name - Dartmoor Legends. This is good but obviously not as good as James' Unit 77 name will be! Hopefully this will be announced soon too. We also have another WSJ meet up in the diary at the end of the month to make up for the day missed due to the storms. A Monopoly Run in Exeter.... What's that - well to be honest we didn't know too but the blurb says......

“WHAT IS A MONOPOLY RUN?” Well, each unit (nine participants) will be given a map, game board and instructions and (post safety brief) will sent off on their adventure (on foot) around the city. There may not be time to go everywhere on the board, so patrols will have to use tactics to choose where to go based on a locations in game “value”.  The game will work best if every patrol (nine participants) has at least one mobile phone in order to take photographs but if this is not possible for some, that is absolutely fine as there should be someone in the patrol who has a phone (that said... as a standby we will have an offline option, so don’t worry)! 

We will also get our UK contingent neckers and get to spend the day with our unit patrols so we are really looking forward to it!

Meanwhile fundraising has been marching on, the March payment of £1100 was due, we had squirrelled away a large chunk of it but then received a grant for £200 from a local charity. We are so happy as firstly it means our grant letters weren't rubbish and it has given us such a massive boost. We sent a thankyou card immediately and posted the cheque on to scout HQ to be banked.

We were almost there, under £100 to go so Mum got her violin out but instead of playing it (thankfully) we sold it and then March payment was made with a little bit left over for the next £1100 payment in May.

Next we heard that 1st Bow Scout group are going to support us by making a donation from what they raise for the group from their Easter Rabbit trail in Crediton. Over the next few weeks ceramic rabbits are going to be designed, decorated and hidden in shop windows in Crediton High Street. People can then buy a trail sheet and go on a bunny hunt over the Easter holidays - how cool is that! Then the Bunnies will be auctioned off. More on this soon - we have to design a Korea bunny so watch this space! We really hope this goes well so that it raises lots of money for 1st Bow.

Sophie has had her birthday which put another chunk of money in the pot for May from grandparents, aunties and uncles, friends and godparents - thankyou people - you know who you are! 

Finally Dad has let us sell his tenor saxophone which has released it from the bottom of the wardrobe where it has lived for the last ten years. Hopefully with a bit more of a push we will be ready for the May payment and on the way to thinking about the August one too!

 

First Camp, well sort of.....

Well we were ready, but things didn't quite go to plan! For a change not due to Covid but due to the weather instead, Dudley, Eunice and Franklin landed. The youth hostel on Dartmoor we were due to stay at had no power, no phone lines and no water. Camp start was postponed until Saturday morning to start with then when no utilities had been restored had to move to Zoom.

So we unpacked - put one of the cakes in the freezer and went with plan B, Covid world kids are good at adapting! A Saturday with three Zoom sessions where we chatted in our units, and started to unpack what "Devonness" means to us and how we are going to represent Devon with our unit names and badge designs. A chance to meet our leaders and get to know them and also watch the UK Contingent branding be unveiled. Being on Zoom meant some people who couldn't come on the camp could join in via the internet instead. Also the cake lasted for the whole week of half term (chocolate brownie at selection weekend disappeared on the first night after we had gone to bed) and Mum appeared with hot chocolate mountains to keep us alert!

So Sunday was an unexpected free day but the weather was so grim we decided to spend the day writing grant letter applications. We had already applied to the Dream Fund but had been given the name of some other charities who might support us - 17 letters later we were done. No idea if they will be successful but we have tried and having never written grant applications before we hope we have done a decent job!

Some more birthday money has gone in the pot from Mum and Dad and we have sold some more stuff, Cds, DVDs and books through Ziffit and Music Magpie made over £60 but our biggest win was some old tech magazines that Dad was about to put in the recycling - instead they went on Ebay and sold for nearly £50! 

Launch Event - Hoodies, Balloons, Plans & Friends!

 

The launch event was great! Meeting our friends from the selection weekend that had been selected as well was brilliant. Finding out more about the camps before the main WSJ trip and getting our hoodies made it all feel a bit more real. We also met the first four leader and they all seem lovely.

Fundraising wise we have been busy, lots of stuff has left our house including two stereos, famous five books, coffee machines, old tech, books and clothes. All stuff in good condition but that we didn't use. That along with money given to us for Christmas (Mum and Dad chucked theirs in the pot too) meant that we had enough to make the first payment of £1000 (£500 each) in January and a little left in the WSJ pot to go towards the next payment of £1100 in March. We have plans for fundraising later in the year but holding fire until the weather improves and Covid rates drop. Watch this space!

The Letters Arrive!!

 

Boom! Two letters and just like that we are going to Korea! James as part of Unit 77 and Sophie as part of Unit 78! So excited, so glad we are both selected but oh my now we now how much it will cost! So expensive, £4,300 each (sounds so much better than £8,600)! We know it is a serious amount of money. There are two of us, we will be away for nearly three weeks with pre and post event camps in Korea and several training camps leading up to the event, it includes all of this and kit for the trip too. Now the fundraising starts in earnest starting with a pile of "quality merchandise" to list on Ebay! 

Selection weekend - a bit like a spa break (scout style) with Devon Mud everywhere!

 

Selection Weekend was AMAZING! 

This is the kit before we went, neatly packed bags, clean boots, badges sewn on, lemon drizzle cake and brownie made and tents borrowed from scouts. We had practiced our knots (bound to come up), packed mini fire lighting kits (cotton wool prepped with vaseline) and knew that we would have to get stuck in straight away! Not going to lie - we were nervous, we knew no one else going and had been put in separate parts of camp. BUT if we wanted to be in Korea with 40,000 scouts from all over the world then 150-200 scouts at Caddihoe campsite in Devon was where to start.  

So this is us on arrival, tagged and ready to go. The number matters, do things well over the weekend and the leaders allocate points to your number, points mean prizes, in this case more chance of selection! We had been registered and after this photo Mum and Dad headed back to the carpark (more on that later) and we went to put up our tents and get set up. James made friends with the chap in the tent beside him, Sophie got to know some of the scouts in her camp, they spent some of the evening setting up the kitchen as their leader was missing due to covid so it was time to pitch in.

Each day started with Wakey Shakey, challenges were set, pipes, water, holes, knots, tasks at camp - all were assessed. Top tip from James, smile every time you saw a leader. Top tip from Sophie, volunteer to help even if you are tired! 

Lots of scouts on a site that has had lots of rain meant things got muddy - very very muddy! But Devon Scouts love Mud so no problem!

So did we mention the mud, turned out the carpark at drop off was muddy too and it was crammed, think roadblox with scout parents pushing out the cars. While this was going on Mum got chatting to a parent who knew someone on the last WSJ to the USA - turns out it was £4k each. She made sure Dad was sitting down when she told him! In retrospect we possibly should have found this out sooner.....

So Sunday came, two nights and two days of fun, making new friends, interviews and challenges and we went home tired but happy. We took a lot away from the weekend - phone numbers, memories and lots of MUD!

Post weekend the leaders had to go through all the points, talk to the scouts who couldn't attend the weekend due to Covid and allocate the 72 places. Two units from Devon, 36 Scouts in each. Best outcome we both get chosen, next best neither get chosen, hardest option one can go and the other can't. We made a pact, if that happened we would support each other all the way. Now we just have to wait for the letters to arrive!

Can I go to Korea with Scouts? Where it all began!

Autumn '21 - the image above appears on the 1st Bow Scout Group Facebook page & it all begins! 

Sophie (age 14): Can I apply? 

Mum (isolating in her room with Covid): How much is it? 

Sophie: They don't know yet. 

Mum (drugged?, insane?, craving normality?): Go for it, let's see what happens!

One week later - realisation that James (age 12) will be too old for the 2027 WSJ event....

Mum: James, do you want to apply for Korea?

James: Yeah! I'm not missing out on a trip of a lifetime!

So that's how it started, one Facebook post, two scouts ready for adventure, application forms submitted and waiting for the selection weekend to arrive.......