Archive for 2012
Great Leprechaun Chase Parent’s Meeting
December 5th, 2012
Last night, Tuesday 4th December, we had our parents meeting about annual camp 2013: The Great Leprechaun Chase. The camp is being held in Ireland and will be first the group annual camp 29th Dublin has run since Boston in 2001. Our friends in Windsor, Canada and Garden City, Michigan, USA are coming to visit us. These are the same groups our scouts stayed with last year on the MIC2012 trip.
For the more details see the presentation slides about camp made on the night.
If you want to get involved in hosting our visitors; fundraising; or logistics; come down to your nightly meeting and tell your section leader.
The hope is that with fundraising the camp fee will come down.
Deposits should be in no later than Tuesday 11th December.
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MIC 2012 Photos on Facebook
November 18th, 2012
Just came across some photos of the Ventures in Michigan this summer, Click here to view on Facebook.
They are looking forward to visiting Ireland this summer for the Great Leprechaun Chase.
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Leaders Climbing in Kilkenny
October 31st, 2012
On the 21st of October a few of the leaders decided to head down to Ballykeefe quarry in Kilkenny for a days climbing. We got glorious weather for the day, even if it was a little cold. We arrived down at the quarry (after arguing with two different SatNavs) at about 11am. We started the day with a small snack and then set about getting some climbing done. First we got the guys to second some routes and practiced building anchors. These are all very important personal climbing skills. After a quick bit of lunch we did a multi-pitch (we had to stop in the middle) route, which was an experience for all. But the view from the top definitely made it all worth while.
After that Hugh decided he was ready to do his first lead climb, he read the guide book chose his climb, selected the gear that he wanted and got ready to go. I belayed him and Tony waited at the top to provide some help with choosing anchors and setting up a belay. It all went really well and by the end of the day Hugh had two lead climbs logged.
We all had a really good day and are looking forward to getting back out again soon but in the mean time we will have to make do with indoor climbing. If any cubs, scouts or venture scouts are interested in rock climbing please let us know, we would love to get people more interested in this amazing sport.
Also don’t forget to check out all of our other photos in the photo gallery.
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Blackrock Family and Jazz Festival
August 27th, 2012
Today at the Blackrock Family and Jazz Festival in Blackrock our scout group provided first aid. Luckily no one needed first aid. It was great to help out.
The scouts posing with Marie Baker, one of the organisers.
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MIC 2012, Day 23
August 10th, 2012
Our last day and it was hot and busy, along with a very early start of needing to leave the cabin by 8am. Everyone already had there bag packed so that helped things along. We piled the bags in the trailer and ourselves in the minivan. Our first stop of the day was White Plains to drop off Gail and Crew 73’s tents, today was their tent maintenance day before their big summer trip.
That done we all headed to Jones beach on Long Island. This was a gorgeous beach and the guys all seemed to enjoy the huge waves. It was also another beautiful day. We didn’t leave the beach until almost 3pm, when we all realised that we may have underestimated the sun and not used quite enough sun cream. After some quick and in some cases cold showers we were back in the minivan and looking for food before heading to the airport. We stopped in a restaurant called Friendly’s and all had some very nice Ice Cream, after dinner of course.
Next stop was the airport, we were a little late because of traffic and so made a very fast exit from the van once we got there. But I will say here thank you Mike and crew 73 for all of your help and hospitality.
Anyway into the Delta building at JFK and yet another self check in system to tackle. Kevin and I set about getting everyone checked in and then I found a Delta representative to make sure that we would make our flight despite the very long queues for bag drop. She said that we had nothing to worry about, but none the less a different representative had opened a new desk in order to help us organise our bags. This was great and we were all in the queue for security in no time at all. Security here seemed to be much more efficient than in Detroit and we were all out the other side very quickly. We got to the gate just in time to board or so we thought, this was when we discovered that our flight was delayed. This allowed me time to go and find some much needed after sun cream and water for those of us who were by now suffering quite alot from sun burn of varying degrees.
Eventually (almost 4 hours later) we were finally ready to board our plane home. Once on the plane I (and most others) went straight to sleep. For those who stayed awake there was food and two or three films to watch on screens throughout the plane. But as I said I was asleep for the whole flight. We landed in Dublin at about 10.30am local time and were all happy to be back. We found the baggage carousel (via the toilets for our mandatory group excursion) and waited for our bags to appear. Once we had all of our bags we went to meet all of the people who were waiting for us in Arrivals. Without much delay except for a photo we all headed home.
That is the end of our trip, I will hopefully have more photos up in the next couple of days, I hope you have enjoyed reading the blog, I have certainly enjoyed writing it.
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MIC 2012, Day 22
August 10th, 2012
Our second last day here and another early start as we needed to be ready to leave the cabin at 8am. I have to admit everyone is getting much better at getting ready in the morning and it doesn’t take as long to get everyone out of bed. We all piled into the minivan and headed into White Plains to meet the Hungarians and other Americans before heading into New York City again.
Today we parked near the South Street Sea Port and walked down Wall Street, this was nice to see especially because it was a Saturday and not too busy. We visited the Bull of Wall Street and took a few photos. The next stop on our tour was Battery Park, where we were able to see out to Ellis and Statin Islands. It was a lovely day and the view was incredible.
On our way to Ground Zero and a view of the Freedom Tower we stopped to eat our lunch of bagels and crisps in the sunshine. Ground Zero was very very busy, but we did get a very good view of the Freedom Tower with the two cranes on the top. It was now time to head back to the cars (for a well deserved nap for some).
Next on our list of things to do was the Metropolitan Museum of Art, this was simply amazing in every way. We only spend a little under two hours here which only gave us time to get a taste of what they had to offer. Myself and Kevin looked at the Egyptian art, the American art, the Arms and Armoury area and a little of the European art. A lot of it was fascinating and beautiful, and when we met up with the group again all of the scouts seemed to have enjoyed themselves.
We left the Hungarians in the museum, and we all headed towards a Baseball game that we had tickets for. We stopped in Pizza Hut for dinner, which was deliciously but I certainly ate too much, I don’t know about anyone else. Anyway takeaway boxes in hand we headed to the stadium. We got there just in time for the start of the game and found our seats. The scouts particularly enjoyed getting Soda and Candy Floss, I am not sure that they saw much of the baseball but they definitely enjoyed the atmosphere. The home team won in the last inning and it was definitely exciting for the last few minutes.
Back to the cabin for our last night in New York.
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