Cubs - 1st Ballan Scout Group

Cubs love gooey stuff. The gooier the better. So, when it came to slime night the Cubs loved it and thoroughly enjoyed getting their hands dirty and creating their own slime.

It was a sticky affair with the cubs having to mix the ingredients in the right way to create the perfect consistency that would result on a big blog of icky, sticky, gooey slime. While it took some patience and practice everyone supported each other to ensure a gooey success with plenty of slime created throughout the evening.

As more and more slime was created, the Cubs became inventive with their colours as they mixed lots of them to create their own shades of everything!!!

Great fund had by all.

Achieving your Wood Beads is a wonderful achievement for any leader. A highlight in their Scouting Journey and full recognition of their dedication, perseverance, leadership, tenacity and ability to implement engaging, active and educational programs for youth.

Following a specific criterion, satisfying a variety of requirements, completing a series of challenges and engaging in a range of training experiences, through persistence, patience and personal achievement Koala has achieved her Wood Beads.

A journey that has seen Koala connect with leaders from all over the State as they all work together to support each other during their Wood Beads Journey. At Koala's request, her presentation was a youth lead ceremony with the Venturers leading the parade and a Cub presenting Koala with her certificate, Gilwell Scarf & Wood Beads.

Reuniting with their friends from Cuboree, our Cubs found themselves walking with Cubs from across our Macedon Ranges and Djerriwarrh District to enjoy a fantastic hike around Mt Macedon. While the distance, 12.5km was initially a challenge, it was a challenge our Cubs were well and truly up for as they maintained a great pace and thoroughly enjoyed their day out.

Throughout the day our Cubs enjoyed walking through the forest environment, conquering a variety of hills and exploring different tunnels in the area. It was awesome when our Cubs had the opportunity to walk through the tunnels to discover what was on the other side.

Finally, after completing a successful District Hike all the Cubs were rewarded with icy poles which they all thoroughly appreciated.

Cuborees are amazing opportunities for Cubs from all over the State to come together and enjoy the fun, excitement and exhilaration of activities, adventure and friendship for 5 days. Cuborees are more than just a weekend camp ... Cuborees are an experience.

Teamed up with Cubs from Gisborne, our Ballan Cubs headed off to Gilwell Park to share Cuboree and have a lot of fun together. After the enjoyment of a pre-Cuboree sleepover, everyone knew each other and were ready to enjoy Cuboree as Unit 126.

In perfect weather conditions for the entire duration of Cuboree our Cubs had an awesome time camping, running, throwing, jumping, climbing, spinning, walking, balancing, crawling through mud and on occasions sleeping. This is their Cuboree ...

Cubs love being creative and exploring possibilities when it comes to creativity. Some Cubs are artists with a focus on drawing, painting & sketching. Some Cubs are sculpturers moulding all sorts of things into unique shapes & figures. Some Cubs are builders using whatever equipment and material they can find to simply build.

Cubs love food regardless of the taste, colour, texture, presentation or location Cubs are in when it comes to food. Whether it's fine dining, campfire cooking, a delicious delight or opportunity to simply play with food ... you'll find Cubs fully engaged.

Combine creativity, food & Cubs and what do you get ... a fun experience where focused Cubs simply enjoy the opportunity to play with their food and mould it into imaginative creations that make them happy, smile, laugh and engage in conversation.

Inviting our Joey Unit the Cubs & Joeys excitedly arrived at Treetops Scout Camp ready to implement their camping and bushcraft skills while also having a lot of fun together.

It was a great weekend with all the Cubs helping Joeys and all the Joeys helping Cubs as well as all the youth helping the leaders. However, the highlights of the camp included:-

The Obstacle Course
Mini Flying Fox
Bush Golf

Through this experience all the youth further extended their camping and bushcraft skills along with their friendships, resulting in lots of laughter, fun and learning.

The Grey Wolf Award is the Pinnacle Award for the Cub Scout Section of which many Cubs strive to achieve. Part of their Grey Wolf Pathway is to lead an adventurous journey ... to take Cubs into the natural environment to explore, discover and have fun while learning and implementing Scouting Skills. It is imperative that a Grey Wolf Journey is led by a Cub resulting in a lot of work required before they even get to the journey's starting point.

Once a Cub has completed their Grey Wolf Journey Plan, they can then promote the journey and encourage others to participate and join in on the fun.

Throughout the journey, the Cub is responsible for the safety, welfare and care of the group and must check the weather conditions, safely lead the journey, make decisions, and ensure safety to further aid the development of everyone's Scouting knowledge and skills. Here are photos from 3, 1st Ballan Grey Wolf Adventurous Journeys ....

Scouting is a great experience - full of fun, laughter, learning, adventure, outdoors, challenge, smiles and achievement - and it's even better fun when you can participate with your friends.

A Cuboree is an event that not only combines everything that is Scouting ... it brings thousands of Cubs together from all over the State of Victoria helping them establish wonderful friendships through a unique camp experience. Cubs from Altona, Bacchus Marsh, Ballan & Sunshine created Unit 110 and spent a week together growing, learning, laughing, developing friendships and enjoying everything that is Cuboree.

Situated in one of the best campsites at Gilwell Scout Park, Unit 110 were surrounded by activities for the duration of the week. Settling into their home away from home, the Cubs quickly understood how important their campsite location was ... as while walking around Gilwell Park, due to the rain, they discovered that many of the other camps were full of mud, making everyone in Unit 110 appreciative of their campsite.

Scouting is about growth and development. With a strong focus on the Outdoors it was time our Cubs challenged themselves to push further, explore and have fun within the Wombat State Forest.

Joining our friends from the Bacchus Marsh & 3rd Melton Cub Units the Cubs found themselves standing at Nolan's Picnic Ground in the misty rain ready to explore and enjoy the Forest while participating in Djerriwarrh District Cub Hike & Camp. Following the Great Dividing Trail the Cubs had fun walking through the Forest as the rain stopped, the cloud lifted and the sky turned blue, offering them a true natural sensory experience where they could hear the river flowing, see the views, feel the wet flora, smell the forest and taste the fresh air.

The more they walked the more the talked. The more they talked the more they learnt about the forest, the local history and about themselves. It was a wonderful weekend that really challenged the Cubs to achieve and have a lot of fun.

A Grey Wolf Hike is about preparation, planning, challenge, leadership, initiative and inspiring others to achieve their best.

So when the opportunity came for the Cubs to explore the Werribee River Walk to help a friend complete their Grey Wolf Hike they said yes please and gathered at the start of the hike ready to enjoy. And enjoy the did. On a perfect day for a walk the Cubs thoroughly enjoyed walking together and discovering the Wombat State Forest. With the sound of the flowing Werribee River echoing through the rolling hills it was a magnificent experience for all the Cubs.

The challenged was heightened when the Cubs arrived at the banks of the Werribee River and worked out a route where they bounced from rock to rock to safely cross the River. Once on the other side the Cubs continued to Carrolls Springs where they enjoyed tasting the Mineral Water before completing the hike.

At the end the Cubs celebrated a successful hike & congratulated the completion of their friends Grey Wolf Journey.

Throughout a youth members Scouting journey they are faced with a large variety of challenges. While each challenge is unique, it allows each youth member to grow and develop through a variety of opportunities and different experiences which contributes to a broad education.

Some youth members are happy to go with the flow and just participate and enjoy their Scouting journey with their friends.

Others become motivated and driven to not only achieve through experiential learning but to push themselves to be the best they can be. This is one such story...

A Cub who at a very young age set a very large, but realistic goal ... 3 years later that goal was achieved ... resulting in that Cub achieving every Level 1 & Level 2 Cub Scout Achievement Badge ... 68 in total. An extremely rare Scouting achievement. Enjoy his journey as he explains his achievement in his own words ......