1st Ballan Scout Group
THANK YOU FOR SUPPORTING OUR WONDERFUL 1st BALLAN SCOUT GROUP
1st Ballan Family Promotion & Information Documents
Grow West Tree Planting
Scouting is about Service and when an opportunity comes up to help others, support the Community and do a good turn, the 1st Ballan Scouts will roll their sleeves up and do the best they can. So when the call came to support the environment and get involved with a Community Tree Planting Day organised by Grow West, our Joeys, Cubs, Scouts & Venturers all accepted the challenge and had a great day supporting each other, supporting others and caring for the environment.
On a wonderful tree planting day our 1st Ballan tree planting team signed in at Telford Park, Bacchus Marsh - at the Bacchus Marsh Scout Hall - before planting 100's of trees. Once on site, our team grabbed tools, plants, guards and stakes and headed into our designated tree planting zone. Very quickly this zone filled with tree guards everywhere. But full of enthusiasm, our Scouts accepted the challenge of expanding their planting zone and continued to plant & water more and more and more trees. With everyone supporting each other and working together it was an enjoyable day where everyone had fun planting trees and caring for the local environment.
Governor-General's Camp
With a Once in a Lifetime Opportunity for Scouts from across Australia to camp at the Governor-General's House in Canberra offered by His Excellency Governor-General David Hurley & Her Excellency Lady Linda Hurley - who both grew up in the Scout Association - there was a group of Ballan youth keen for the experience.
Arriving at Government House in Canberra was awesome with Unit quickly setting up camp for the week before heading out to explore the property and discover what was on offer throughout the program. With stunning weather and engaging activities no-one was disappointed and everyone simply enjoyed camping and living on the lawns of Government House. With the Air Force, Army, Navy onsite and plenty of activities to do everyone thoroughly enjoyed the experience of the Governor-General's camp.
It was awesome to share this experience with Scouts from all over Australia with everyone making many connections and friends throughout a fantastic program - a true Once in a Lifetime Opportunity.
ANZAC Day
ANZAC Day ... a day to reflect, remember, give thanks and serve.
As part of the ANZAC Day experience the 1st Ballan Scout Group come together on ANZAC Eve to experience a Sleepover at the Scout Hall. During the evening the streets of Ballan are explored visiting the Cenotaph, ANZAC Lone Pine and Ballan RSL Club to learn more about the local ANZAC history before settling down to sleep.
Waking up at 5am our Joeys, Cubs, Scouts & Venturers walk down to the ANZAC Lone Pine tree where they join the local community and quietly participated in the Ballan Dawn Service. In the early afternoon our youth are invited back to return to the streets of Ballan to participate in and support the local ANZAC Parade, March & Service.
As always, it is a good time for our youth to reflect, remember and respect those within our community, within our Group and also within their families. It is a time where our youth truly understand the concept of Community Service.
Ballan Autumn Festival
Joining in with the local community, our Joeys, Cubs, Scouts, Venturers & Leaders proudly marched to celebrate the Ballan Autumn Festival and everything Ballan.
It was a wonderful day with many people visiting the township, enjoying the festivities and giving everything a go. Our youth & leaders proudly marched through the streets of Ballan representing our community and showcasing our Scout Group. As they marched through the streets they were warmly welcomed by the community and visitors standing on the footpaths. It was wonderful to see so many people in town to enjoy and experience the Festival.
With the street march over, our Venturers quickly returned to their stall and started cooking up a storm to raise money for their Unit. A sausage sizzle BBQ is what they provided, and it was a popular choice amongst the festival goers with many people happily waiting to buy their food and drink from our youth. A very successful and enjoyable day had by all.
Remembrance Day
Supporting the Ballan RSL is always an honour and whenever we get the opportunity, we always say yes. Arriving at the Ballan Cenotaph our youth were keen to help and organised themselves into flag bearers and wreath layers. However, this year was a little different. With Remembrance Day Services being implemented simultaneously around the Country our youth were asked to lay a wreath on behalf of our local Federal Member of Parliament, the Member for Hawke while he attended the service in Bacchus Marsh.
It was an appropriate commemorative service with a blend of youth, protocol and new additions to the Service. It was wonderful to see the community come together surround the Cenotaph, pay their respects and remember members of our local community, past and present service men & women and battles throughout history. Then when it came to laying the wreaths, once again our youth represented themselves proudly as they respectfully laid the wreaths at the Cenotaph.
Lest We Forget.
Victorian Emergency Management Training Centre (VEMTC)
The CFA have to train somewhere, and lucky for us the Victorian Emergency Management Training Centre (VEMTC) is situated just down the road from our Scout Hall in Ballan. So, keen to check it out two Scouts walked in, introduced themselves and requested a tour on behalf of our Cubs & Scouts. After a few conversations, permission was granted and our youth were not disappointed with their tour.
The tour started in a classroom with a bit of history, a video and a safety brief before a full tour of all the facilities. It was interesting to see what facilities and resources are available to help train our Victorian CFA volunteers.
Eventually our youth arrived on the training pad where they witnessed cars, gas tanks, petrol bowsers, a tanker, a building and the ground all go up in flames .... and they loved it. It truly is an amazing training facility and lucky for the youth the Ballan CFA happen to be onsite to help extinguish the flames.
Bunnings
Bunnings is always a fun experience and when our Joeys, Cubs & Scouts arrived at Bunnings Melton East, they knew they were going to enjoy their evening. The store is huge and when they all found their way to the activity area, they were happy to see each other and impressed with what they were about to build.
After a few introductions, safety instructions and demonstrations on how to correctly use the equipment and building their toolboxes everyone happily started to build. As everyone tinkered away and applied the skills they had just been shown they were supervised and supported by Bunnings Staff and Leaders to ensure everyone knew what they were doing and did it in a safe way. It was great fun, and our youth thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to build a toolbox and simply socialise with each other. Once the boxes were built, out came the textas and stencils and it was time to decorate with many of the youth applying creative designs to their toolboxes.
It was an awesome night thoroughly enjoyed by all ... including the delicious pizzas. THANK YOU, BUNNINGS.
Buchan Caves
Teaming up with the Scouts Victoria Caving Team is always exciting and arriving at Buchan Caves our Venturers and Scouts looked forward to the opportunity to challenge themselves through a variety of caves and they were not disappointed. While Buchan Caves was a mystery to everyone, the experience of walking, crawling and sliding through caves wasn't, however abseiling into and ascending out of caves, was a brand-new experience everyone looked forward to.
Our Venturers and Scouts had an awesome time at Buchan Caves as they extended their comfort zones through a series of amazing caves and when it came to abseiling and ladder climbing they excelled. Without hesitation they all lowered themselves into the caves and after exploring the natural beauty within the caves thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to ascend the rope ladder to exit the cave.
Buchan Caves truly was a unique experience for our Venturers & Scouts.
Opening Our New Hall
Through perseverance, determination, dedication and leadership our new Scout Hall was finally built and ready for our Scout Group to enjoy, promote, experience and share with the local community of Ballan.
The road to get to this point was not easy with many bumps, tangents, turns and unpredictable obstacles along the way, but the day had finally arrived, the day we could all celebrate within our community to showcase what can be achieved when stakeholders come together with a common cause, a clear vision and a real purpose to achieve and support an individual, a group, a community by offering everyone the opportunity to be the best they can be through challenge, tenacity and focus.
This is how we thanked our stakeholders, our community and officially opened our new 1st Ballan Scout Hall.
Thank you one ... Thank you all.
ARAP - Annual Reports & Award Presentations
ARAP is an annual event to focus on and celebrate everything Scouting and everything 1st Ballan.
It is an opportunity for the Committee to showcase and highlight the achievements throughout the year through their annual reports. A way to involve youth, engage families and inform communities of the operations, decisions and actions for the past year and prepare everyone for the future. While the President focuses on achievements, personnel, development and innovation the Treasurer presents audited reports to further inspire and support future development and growth.
ARAP is also an opportunity to publicly acknowledge and recognise awards achieved by both youth and adults. While the focus is always on Peak Awards it is also essential to recognise any significant individual and team achievement giving them the opportunity to be acknowledged and congratulated. It is the same for any adult leader, committee member, volunteer and supporter ...... This is our ARAP.
A Visit to the SES Station
When the invitation arrived from our friends at the Bacchus Marsh Scout Group to join them for a joint SES night our Scouts & Venturers immediately accepted and met their friends in Bacchus Marsh ready to improve their understanding of everything SES.
Throughout the night the youth were challenged to learn more and work towards their SES Badge. To achieve the badge youth must work with SES volunteers to improve their knowledge on what the SES does to support the community and implement some of the skills required. During their visit the youth filled sandbags and stack them to learn how to stop rising flood water, implemented a mock 1st aid scenario and gained access to their equipment including the jaws of life and other resources utilised by the SES in emergency situations.
It was a fun and educational evening thoroughly enjoyed by all.
Rafting
Scouting is about youth development, education, growth, acquiring new skills, goal setting and achieving those goals.
Throughout the journey it is always good to take a moment to test and implement the skills learnt, and that is exactly what our Scouts & Venturers did when they visited Lady Northcote Discovery Camp. With a focus on rafting and fun they divided into teams to design, construct and launch rafts.
The task was simple ... build a raft, paddle out to the island and paddle back to the shore ... how hard can that be?
Well ... some teams made it look harder than others resulting in their rafts imploding the moment it hit water!!! However, this only heightened the enthusiasm for fun and while one raft was successful everyone else chased floating gear all over the lake, before their focused turned too ... how many people can we get on the one raft and how many people can we get in our rescue canoe!!! End result an awesome night of fun, laughter and friendship.
Remote Area 1st Aid Course
As part of the new program youth are required to complete a 1st Aid Course to satisfy the requirements to achieve any Level 5 Outdoor Activity Skills Badge. Through open discussion the Venturers got together and discussed options and decided that they would like to complete a Remote Area 1st Aid Course with Wilderness 1st Aid Australia.
Understanding the cost involved, to achieve this the Venturers wrote a letter to the StepToes Op Shop in Ballan and received an amazing donation of $2,000 to help subsidise the cost of the course for all participants. With funding subsidised and date confirmed, our Venturers and older Scouts prepared themselves to participate in their 1st Aid Course. Very quickly our youth discovered that this course was not going to be easy as they were required to complete a minimum of 12 hours pre-course online learning to fully satisfy the course requirements. It was hard. However, with constant encouragement from leaders and families all participants completed their online pre-course work making the actual course a more practical, meaningful and real experiential learning opportunity.
A New Hall for a New Generation
With the purchase of the Ballan Guide Hall by Scouts Victoria as a Scout Hall for the 1st Ballan Scout Group their was an ultimate focus that one day a new Scout Hall would be built on this site for the Ballan Community.
During the following years many meetings, conversations and plans were put in place with not a lot of success.
Then during an election campaign the Victorian State Government opened their eyes up to the growing Ballan community and the potential for further growth and development in the area and committed funds towards a new Scout Hall on the understanding that their commitment needed to be matched dollar for dollar.
This ignited a desire within the 1st Ballan Family & Scouts Victoria to match their offer and make their dreams come true by raising the funds needed to build a Hall that would function primarily as a Scout Hall as well as a community resource.
Ballan Spring Festival Hay Bale Decorations
Lead by our Venturers, our Joeys, Cubs, Scouts, Venturers & Rovers all met on the side of old Melbourne Road ready to answer the call of the Ballan Autumn Festival Committee to decorate their hay bales in preparation for the Ballan Spring Festival.
It was wonderful to see the Group united together to support the community while simultaneously enjoying a lot of fun.
While everyone worked together to achieve a wonderful outcome, laughter was heard across the field as everyone talked, socialised, smiled and creatively worked together to build a hay bale Bee & a hay bale Flower Pot.
Joeys helping Cubs, Cubs helping Scouts, Scouts helping Venturers, Venturers helping Rovers, Rovers helping parents and everyone helping everyone created a superb display of teamwork resulting in a wonderful hay bale promotion for the Ballan Autumn Festival Committee. Well done 1st Ballan.
Inclusive Adventure
When people talk about Scouts and Scouting the conversation generally ends up focused on adventure. While the outdoors and adventure are a strong component of a Scouts journey, there are also many other components that contribute to and complete the path a Scout will walk throughout their Scouting journey ... like Service.
Then on occasions a Scout may be able to combine outdoors, adventure and service all together, as do the 1st Ballan youth who annually support the implementation of a family camp for their friends at 2nd Glenroy. Each year the 2nd Glenroy Scout Group arrives at Blackwood with their families ready to experience fun, adventure, outdoors and further enhance their Scouting experiences while fine tuning and applying their Scouting skills.
During this camp, the role of the 1st Ballan youth is to support, challenge and guide their 2nd Glenroy friends through adventurous activities to a level where their comfort zones are extended but their willingness to participate is maintained.
Keeping our Local Community Warm
When the local Moorabool Shire put out a call to help the local community by stacking wood for residents throughout the Shire, the 1st Ballan Scout Group very quickly put up their hand and said we are willing to help, with families from across all our Scouting Sections pitching in to support our community.
Gathering at the Hall the families travelled to a house in Ballan where they worked together to very quickly stack the wood delivered by the local council. From there a plan was implemented to divided and conquer as wood stacking teams were created to support a variety of residents within the Shire. With the Shire working in unison to stay ahead of our Scout Group by delivering the firewood prior to our teams arrival, everything ran very smoothly. Throughout the day our wonderful families travelled far and wide within our Shire to support local residents by stacking wood in sheds, car ports, shipping containers and on outdoor racks.
It was a very successful day of service where our youth helped keep many people warm.
THANK YOU Ballan Farmers Market
As a very active Scout Group it is always a challenge to transport appropriate gear required for each event, activity and experience.
With the group needing a trailer to support our youth members to participate in their active programs, discussions were had with the local Ballan Farmers Market to seek support towards the creation of a purpose built appropriate trailer for the Group. After a number of conversations and letters a written proposal was put forward with the hope that the Ballan Farmers Market would support our wonderful Scout Group.
And support they did ... with an $8,000 donation, the 1st Ballan Scout Group suddenly had enough funds to build a trailer. THANK YOU BALLAN FARMERS MARKET. The trailer has quickly become a very important group asset and continues to help our youth members engage in a huge variety of Scouting events, activities and experiences allowing our youth members to grow and develop into amazing youth adults.
Jamboree on Pedals
Teaming up with our friends from the Bacchus Marsh Cub Unit, Joeys, Cubs, Scouts & a Rover from 1st Ballan enjoyed the challenge of Jamboree on Pedals by riding around Lake Wendouree & Victoria Park in Ballarat. Although the day started off very windy it was a perfect day for bike riding and all the youth members were up for the challenge.
As everyone moved around Lake Wendouree they enjoyed watching the yachts, paddle boats and paddle streamer glide across they water while they simultaneously dodging dogs, pedestrians, bike riders and trees. Moving over to Victoria Park everyone had fun riding around the 16th Australian Jamboree Site where they enjoyed the open fields, the pine trees and riding through a public Frisbee Golf Course.
A thoroughly enjoyable experience for all riders where collectively we rode 396km.
Bunnings BBQ
When opportunities arise to support, develop, grow and promote your Scout Group you always say yes and do your best to make things happen as best it can ... and that is exactly what our wonderful Committee did when the opportunity was offered to host a Bunnings BBQ at the new Bunnings Melton East Store.
With a very limited amount of preparation time, between themselves the Committee found the time to organise equipment, set up a cash float, purchase products and organise a parent roster. Now, all they needed was the customers to purchase sausages as they exited the new store.
While the flow of customers was regularly steady, the weather was not on our side with persistent rain slowing down the sale of food throughout the day. However, the end result was that much needed funds were raised, our wonderful Scout Group was promoted and the parents all had a good time getting to know each other a little better.
Thank you 1st Ballan Committee.
Family Working Bee
Life continuously creates challenges, like, how do we clean up our property, assets and organise our gear, when everything is everywhere and slightly disorganised?
You motivate your families and hold working bees ... and that's exactly what the 1st Ballan Family did. They rolled up their sleeves, got their hands dirty, supported each other and found a better way to store, organise and present equipment which helped not only revitalised the property, assets and storage systems it also opened the eyes of possibilities ... of what can be achieved when we get together with a plan and utilise the skills, expertise, knowledge and resources of each individual to accomplish things as a team.
All the families throughout the working bees did a phenomenal job while smiling, socialising, chatting, laughing and achieving. Thank you.
1st Ballan Family Picnic
It is a well known fact that Scouting is a Worldwide Family with every Scout across the Globe being a brother or sister to all other Scouts.
At 1st Ballan we have our own unique family, that brings families form all parts our our local Shire together under the Scouting Banner. So to help everyone get to know each other and learn more about their friends and their families a Family Picnic was held at Moorabool Reservoir.
On a perfect day for fun, laughter, family and challenge everyone was split up and we had Joeys & Cubs being lead by Scouts through a series of initiatives and activities which also engaged parents & siblings. As each group rotated through the activities the teamwork, communication and initiative skills began to grow and each group found success in their own unique ways. A wonderful day was had by all.
