3rd Hampton Hill Scout Group

Together with a bunch of other certifiable scout leaders, 3HH represented the Richmond Upon Thames RUT Scout District in this year’s Great River Race held on Saturday 13 September.

We covered a monstrous 22 miles from Ham to Greenwich in a traditional Viking longboat, carrying the Mayor of Hammersmith and Fulham as our passenger. The whole thing took a very respectable 4 hours and 7 minutes (we’d expected nearer 5 hours if we were to be honest with ourselves); all the more impressive since we had the largest and heaviest boat in the event!

The Race was simply a stunning spectacle: hundreds of boats of all shapes and sizes, powered only by oars, raced from Ham to Greenwich, through the City, dodging commercial river traffic and tidal turbulence all the way. You can click on the photo above to see more of the day’s action.

As well as the most incredible personal achievement (I am after all far from being a super-fit athlete ) and huge amounts of fun, I was delighted to raise nearly £500 for the local Scout district. And across the team as a whole, the figure will be a couple of thousand.

But it’s not too late to show some last minute support, you can still donate online through justgiving.com using the donate button.

Many thanks once again for your hugely generous sponsorship and shouts of encouragement, Simon

** update 16 Sept 2008 ** The fund raising total is now well over £500 and that’s just awesome. Thanks masses to all those who showed support to get the total this far.

BT like many companies runs a scheme called Community Champions which seeks to recognise and reward those in their employ who volunteer their time freely for the benefit of their community. I have been fortunate in a recent application to the scheme in being awarded £500 towards our plans to open up the loft at our HQ.

This year we have also benefited from large contributions from Barclays, Thomson Reuters and BP in similar schemes or matched giving and all this just by applying to those schemes.

If your company has a similar scheme that you as a volunteer for our Group can apply to or if your company has a community sponsorship fund of any sort then please do consider making an application on behalf of the group (we can offer help when completing any forms or paperwork).

Funds of this sort ease the pressure on the group to fund raise, or to increase subs etc and give us the opportunity to both improve our facilities and increase our resources as we seek to replace our minibus and open up the loft space.

Please do speak to any of the team if you can help and a big thanks to BT for the £500

Voluntary Care Group Christmas concert – Once again, the Scouts will be assisting the Hampton and Hampton Hill VCG with their community carol service at St James Church on Wednesday 12th December from approximately 6 – 8.30pm. We’ll be taking the collection, serving refreshments (including mince pies) and as usual attendance will go towards your Community Challenge badge service requirement.

All the above will qualify you to receive an invitation to our final evening’s skating at Hampton Court Ice Rink on Friday 14th December.

On Friday 21 September 2007, in support of the annual Christian Aid fundraiser, 3HH’s scouts transformed the hall into a fancy Parisian tea room

The idea was to raise awareness of the plight of some of our poorest countries while raising money, through donations, in return for tea and cake. So what better way to help reduce poverty in the world than by having a brew?

The scouts produced endless buckets of tea and dished up masses of pizza, cakes and other assorted sugary stuff to feed their guests.

Overall the evening was an amazing success, everyone had a huge amount of fun and we raised £133.98 for this very important charity!

!! PLEASE HELP!!

Date: Sunday 29th April – 9am to 1pm or 1pm to 5pm
Event - Walkorun funday, a 2.5k and 5k race with loads of other activities, inflatables and stalls etc
Where: Claremont Fan Court School, Esher.
Who: Scout, Adults, cubs and beavers very welcome if with adults
Why: They will give us a donation towards our centenary year costs. The more volunteers we can offer the more money we get!
What do I have to do: help run the different stalls and activities, man the water stations during the run.
How long for: You do not have to commit to the whole day but a minimum of 4 hour stints please.

As you all know we are asking you for a lot more money this year than we usually do, this is a fantastic opportunity to reduce our costs. Please, please come and help.