The 30th Abingdon Beavers Scouts, aged 6 and 7, have been volunteering. They have been putting their promise into action “I promise to do my best,To be kind and helpful..” by working with the community Abingdon Food Bank.

The Abingdon Foodbank visited the Beaver Scouts in September and ran an evening to understand why the foodbank is needed, how it works and what type of food is best to donate to help create balanced meals. After this visit, the Beaver Scouts have been doing good deeds and being kind and helping during the last few months to earn items to donate to the Abingdon Foodbank before Christmas including a few extra Christmas treat items. The Abingdon Foodbank visited last week to pick up all the donations from the Beaver Scouts.

The Beavers also took park in Parliament Week in the middle of November. The meeting hall was set up like parliament in Westminster.

Abingdon Town Councillor, Samantha Bowring talked with the Beavers about why and how local and national decisions are taken and how she was inspired to become a Councillor to help improve the local parks.

Beavers formed their own opinions on subjects, such as whether school uniform was a good idea then came up with ideas for the Beaver meeting the week after.

Three ideas were voted on using a secret ballot. Sledging in the dark was chosen and the Beavers went grass sledging in the dark the week after with the sledges lit up with fairy lights.

To allow these types of Scouting adventures to continue to inspire local boys and girls, aged between 6 to 14, we are in need of new volunteers in Abingdon, especially for Scouts. Scouts are aged 10 to 14.

Scout Leaders facilitate a wide range of adventurous activities. No one individual is likely to have the complete set of skills required to run an effective Scout Troop. Teamwork is key, and all the support you need is there in abundance at Group, District, County and National level. A great part of helping Scouts is seeing them develop into well-rounded teenagers. Contact the Group Scout Leader gsl@30thabingdon.org.uk for more information.

(Thankyou to Avril for this report and all the volunteers who keep the scouts going.)

Premature leaf fall caused by the Horse-chestnut Leaf Miner has given an early autumn look in some places like these trees overlooking the Abingdon Vale Cricket Club.

The cricket season is over. Abingdon Vale beat Tiddington by 7 Wickets in their last match.

The Caravan Club season must also be drawing to a seasonal close.

Members of Thames Valley Croquet Club lined up for lunch at their Annual Barbecue on Friday 15th September at the Abingdon Vale Cricket Club, and  after a lunch had a few games of golf croquet. But they are not stopping there …

The Croquet Club play throughout the year, on Mondays and Fridays 1.30pm – 4.30pm in the Summer and 11am – 2.30pm in Winter. For more details, please give Mike a ring on 01235203082 or drop in to the Club and make yourself known. Membership fees are modest.

2017 marks the 300th anniversary of the Freemasons in this country. That makes Freemasonry older than the American Republic. George Washington, the first President of the USA, was a Freemason.

To coincide with the anniversary there was a five part documentary on Sky TV giving an insight into the ancient rituals and practices of the this band of brothers.

To mark the anniversary the three different Abingdon Freemasonary lodges joined together for an outreach event on the Market Place today. A lodge is the basic organisational unit, and the three Abingdon Lodges are:
* Abbey Lodge
* St Edmund Lodge
* St Swithun’s Lodge

They had a sign the read ‘Don’t wait to be asked’, and were there to tell people more about themselves, and why they had joined. They told me that they do a lot for charity, not collecting from the general public but raising money through their own events. One recent event was a charity horse racing night. One charity they currently support is the Abingdon Bridge who offer help for Abingdon young people living through difficult circumstance.

At the end of the day they had met eleven people who expressed an interest in finding out more, and met with a large number of people.

I was also asked  to mention an upcoming concert in aid of the Abingdon Bridge. It can be found at https://www.abingdon.org.uk/future_events on November 3rd. The Abingdon School Big Band will perform,  and be joined by Joe Stilgoe, an internationally acclaimed singer, pianist and song writer.