Well it has come back to this time of year again. We’re at the Annual General Meeting, which means you've all managed to survive a year with me as Chairperson, so well done everyone. We have even managed to gain three new members so welcome Caitlin, Chelsea, and Jasmine.

    I think we can all agree that we've had a great year. We've managed to achieve many badges such as Childcare, the Caribbean, the Zookeeper, Poppy and Butterfly.

    Alongside the Friday evenings used to achieve the badges, we've also passed many enjoyable evenings doing activities such as learning self- defense, watching movies, working on Me in Mind, exploring Choices for life, had a Great British Bake off and finally the Australia Day celebration. Which was a smashing good time. We also ventured out during our Friday meetings to participate in activities such as snow tubing, drop-off hikes, punting, penny hikes, Cheryl's last gang show as well as a new favourite, Wide Games.

    We also decided we like each other so much that as well as meeting on Fridays we would branch out into other days of the week and take part in events such as the SSOX (Senior Section in Oxfordshire) Burns night, Evolution camp, a Thorpe Park Birthday Bonanza and an international trip to Switzerland.

    In addition to these amazing experiences we also managed to raise an incredible amount of money, for instance for Switzerland alone we managed to raise between three and four thousand pounds which is in itself an amazing achievement. I think we should all be proud of. This meant I raised the entire cost of my trip. We did this through things like Christmas fairs, Coffee mornings, Fetes, a Beetle drive, Car boots, letter writing and babysitting.

    Special mentions are deserved by both Eleanor and Cheryl, who have both run great camps during the year.  Eleanor kicked us off with an amazing Christmas Permit Camp where we completed  both the Onesie Challenge and the Gingerbread Challenge badges as well as having our annual Christmas dinner, which   was entirely edible thanks to Tilly and Jordyn's hard work.
This was then followed by Cheryl's extremely brave move to take nine of us out of the country, on what was for most of us, our first international trip, to the beautiful Kandersteg  International Scout Centre in Switzerland, where she put up with a lot of duck taping, loud singing and dodgy language skills and still brought us all back safely.

    I also believe that both Eleanor & Brigid have achieved their Bronze DofE Awards, which is incredible. Also, Caitlin, Chelsea, Emma, Hannah, Katherine and Jordyn have all completed their Bronze practise expedition which means they're well on their way to achieving their Bronze awards.                      

     I hope I have covered everything and that everyone had fun and not found my voice too annoying. All I have left to say is Good Luck to the next Chair who has to sum up our next exciting year together.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                   Heather x

CHAIR'S REPORT   --Sept 2013 -2014 As submitted to the AGM                                              Frankie Ingell

 

I'm sure the girls will agree that this year has been filled with both fun and adventure. We've also had six new members join us and no one has left, making the Unit a very healthy size.

We've done lots of interesting activities, including: bowling, a drop off hike, stream walking, a Great British Bake Off, mehendi painting, decopatch, looked at Jane Austin and celebrated the Chinese Lunar Festival. We've all taken part in an Assertiveness training and looked at the eight Millennium development Goals.

We've had some exciting parties too, our Halloween Party this year was at the old Oxford Prison, and the girls enjoyed bobbing for apples, flour cake and eating doughnuts on strings, as well as sleeping in the cells. We also had a great Christmas Party with a splendidly cooked traditional Christmas dinner, glow bowling and party games, Finally our Fairy tea party organised by Kayleigh and Erika saw all of us wearing fairy wings!!!

  The Unit has once again enjoyed lots of trips and camps including a visit to the Oxford Gang Show, Bournemouth beach, Bell Ringing at St Mary's, Sun Run at Cleeve Hill and Wallingford's Bunk Fest. Congratulations to Maisie for completing her Senior Section Camp Permit and Well Done to Brigid, Kayleigh & Erika for doing both your Silver Duke of Edinburgh Award Practice and Expedition in the New Forest this year. Good Luck to Sophie, Eleanor Helen, Heather, Catherine, and Brioney with the Bronze Expedition that comes up in a couple of weeks time. Also Good Luck to Emily and Nikki with your forthcoming camps and all who are going on the Paris trip. Finally Emily and I both really enjoyed the chance to play with the National Scout and Guide Symphony Orchestra in Newcastle this summer and have to congratulate Mim and Brigid for a highly successful trip to Uganda.

Over the year Horizon raised awareness for Children In Need by taking part in the Hobbycraft competition, we also raised Awareness of the Millennium goals by painting calico bags. We filled backpacks for the Mary’s Meals Campaign, providing basic school equipment for children in Malawi and Uganda, then sent off nearly £200 to the British Heart Foundation after a sponsored Dodge-ball evening and another £102.00 went to World Vision for a Sponsored Fast members participated in.

During all this time the girls have grown in confidence and had loads of fun. However none of it would have been possible without the great support of the Leaders. Let's hope we're on the brink of yet another brilliant year.                                                     Frankie x 

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