Coat Drive for Romero House

As one of our community projects this year, the 433rd Toronto Scout Group is collecting clean, gently-used or new coats/snowsuits for Romero House.

Romero House is a charitable organization in Toronto that has provided shelter and support to refugee claimants since 1992. Using a community based approach, volunteers and refugee claimants live together in three houses in a middle-class neighbourhood of west Toronto.

Please bring your coats/snowsuits (adult, youth, children, toddlers, infants) to any meeting in October. The Venturers and Scouts will help deliver them to Romero House.

Apple Day Reminder 2008 !

The Event

Just a reminder to all Cubs, Scouts, and Beavers that this weekend October 18-19 is our annual Apple Day fundraiser. Everyone is expected to participate.

Please ensure you're signed up for one of the sessions listed below.

Saturday, October 18

• 8am-noon (Scouts)
• 9am-noon
• 10am-1pm
• noon-3pm
• 1-4pm
• 2-5pm

Sunday, October 19

• 10am-1pm
• 1pm-4pm

Make your first and second choice known to your leaders who have sign-up sheets. Parents can attend with youth members. Meet at St. Lukes just before your scheduled time slot.

What's Apple Day all about?

Apple Day is one of two major annual fund raisers for our group. Unlike our annual registration 100% of funds raised through Apple Day donations go to our group. Here are some of the things that these donations get used for:

• purchase and maintenance camping equipment
• subsidizing group events, outings, and camps
• purchasing badges and crests

Scouts don't "sell" apples, there is no fixed price. We seek donations from the public and we need to show our pride and gratitude to the public.

Please show with your uniform in best condition, wear a smile, and speak with a clear voice. Always thank people, even when they decline.

Thank you!

Website Upgrade

With many thanks to Baloo, the 433rd's web site was upgraded last week. You probably won't notice a large difference at first because the upgrade was mostly under the covers as they say.

The original web site was hand crafted by one of our Beaver leaders (Hawkeye). While it was well done, it was a bit difficult to maintain and update. We made the decision to retire the old site after its' sterling service when we found a suitable replacement.

We needed a system that would allow more collaboration and easy maintenance. One of the primary goals was to put in place a system that could be distributed over several volunteers. The system we chose was Wordpress, a popular open source web publishing tool for web pages and blogs. Wordpress is ideal for small scale web publishing and being open source is free.

The initial change was to move the existing content to the new site, update some of the contact information, and make some of the information clearer and easier to find. More changes will come over the next while but the look and feel of the site should remain much the same.

A big thanks to Baloo!

Welcome Chil!

We have a new Cub leader, welcome Chil!

Scouting Background Checks

I've posted an article that talks about the ins and outs of Scouting background checks, see Background Checks and Scouting.

Registration Night - September 9th!

Come one, come all ...

ATTENTION ALL FUTURE and RETURNING BEAVERS, CUBS, SCOUTS and VENTURERS!

The 433rd Toronto Scout Group is holding our 39th Annual Registration Night on:

• Tuesday, September 9, 2008
• 7:00 – 8:30 pm
• St. Luke’s United Church (located at the corner of Kipling and The Kingsway)
• Registration Fee $135.00
  

Beavers: Ages 5 – 7, Kindergarten – Grade 2
Cubs: Ages 8 – 10, Grades 3 - 5
Scouts: Ages 11 – 14, Grades 6 – 9
Venturers: Ages 14 – 17, Grades 10 - 12

Beavers and Scouts meet Wednesday nights, Cubs and Venturers on Tuesday nights at St. Luke’s. Scouting is for girls and boys.

Come and sign up for a great year of friendship, camping, outdoor fun and adventure, games, learning, Cuborees and Beaverees, and much more!

Parents: Are you interested in being a leader or a Group Committee member or just helping out from time to time? Do you have a hobby or special interest you would like to share? Come
and talk with our current leaders on Registration Night, and find out how you can also get involved.

The mission of Scouting is to help youth achieve physical, intellectual, social and spiritual potential, not only as individuals but also as responsible citizens. For more information please visit www.gtc.scouts.ca or call 416-233-2937.

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A printable version of this can be found here.

Swimup Camp at Wye Marsh (June 21st)

Information on the swim-up camp has been sent out. It is also available for download here.

Please note that fees for Beavers are different from the other sections as listed above. Please contact your leaders.

Thanks!

Emergency Preparedness Adventure - Photos

Photos and a report on the 433rd's participation at last Saturday's event are posted over here.

For any dad's who are hoping to get the OPP's deluxe weed wacker for Father's Day, may we suggest this instead :-)

Emergency Preparedness Adventure - Saturday, May 10th, 9 am - 4 pm

Emergency Preparedness Adventure at Centennial Park - Saturday, May 10th, 9 am - 4 pm
Cubs and Scouts

For more information see here or download the flyer from here.

The group will be picking up the registration cost. Please let your section leaders know who will be attending.

UPDATE:

The event will be held near the Conservatory (Site #8 on the map off Rathburn and Elmcrest) west of the Olympium. See the official map of Centennial Park, here (warning large download). Parking near the site is limited and we will probably use the large lot between the Olympium and the Stadium about 600meters from the site.

Family Picnic Day at Woodland Trails - Sunday, June 29, 2-7pm

The GTC is having a family picnic day on Sunday, June 29th at Woodland Trails near Ballantrae/Stouville. A rain date has been set for July 6th.

This event is open to individual families - it is not a group run event.

Registration forms are available here. Registration runs into June but there is a bonus for registration before May 9th.

Directions to Woodland Trails are available here and a map is here.

Also please see the notes on parking and shuttle buses.