Austinmer welcomes its first Joeys
Our first group of Joeys have so much fun they don’t want to leave at the end of the hour. We have been overwhelmed with interest from families wanting to join Austinmer Joeys Scouts, which is incredible.
By 1st Austinmer Group Leader Stephen Turner
Austinmer Scout Group was formed on 16th November 1923 and since then the group has seen many changes in the organisation including the renaming of the original sections – Wolf Cubs and Boy Scouts and later Senior Scouts – to Cub-Scouts (7.5-11 years), Scouts (10.5-15 Years), Venturers (14.5-18 Years) and Rovers (18-25 Years).
The next major change was the addition of Joey Scouts (6-8 years), and 1st Austinmer started this section on Wednesday, 12 October 2022, trialling a 4:30-5:30pm weekly meeting time.
Our first group of Joeys have so much fun they don’t want to leave at the end of the hour.
We have been overwhelmed with interest from families wanting to join Austinmer Joeys Scouts, which is incredible.
We love welcoming new friends and families into our Scout Group to enjoy camps, adventures and social activities together.
Until we can train our new leaders, District Joey Leader Leanne Senn has been planning and leading the fun activities we know young Scouts love.
A major achievement for Joeys is the Joey Scout Challenge Award Adventurous Journeys, which are a way for Joey scouts to get out in nature and the outdoors with their Patrol.
The Joey Scout can choose what type of journey they want to do. It could be a bushwalk, cycling, sailing, or something else.
This will mean that parents, or another adult family member, will need to be available for a few hours to assist the Joey Leaders.
The Joey age group works best with a ratio of one adult for every four Joeys, especially when craft and outdoor adventures are involved.
With the addition of Joeys to 1st Austinmer we now have all five sections of Scouting in our Group, which is very uncommon in NSW, and more special in that Austinmer is quite a small town in comparison to others in the region.
With our centenary approaching in 2023 we have set a goal to have 100 youth members by our 100th year.
