De La Salle Scout Group News Page

Date	Event	Section	Venue	Time
30/08/10	One Programme Meeting Scouts	Leaders	The Den	7.30-8.30pm
31/08/10	One Programme Meeting Beavers	Leaders	The Den	7.00-8.00pm
31/08/10	One Programme Meeting Cubs	Leaders	The Den	8.00-9.00pm
14/09/10	Group Council	All	The Den	9.00pm
12/10/10	Group Council	All	The Den	9.00pm
Sunday 21st or Sunday 28th November 2010	One Programme Training	Leaders	TBC	TBC
09/11/10	Group AGM	All	TBC	TBC

Upcoming Waterford Scout County events are listed here.

Great Weekend for the Group at the Phoenix Challenge (05/08/10)

Above: The team from the 3rd De La Salle Scouts with their Gold Award from the Phoenix Trophy 2010.

It's been an excellent weekend in Larch Hill for all of the Waterford Scout County teams. Phoenix Challenge 2010 "The Big Bang" has been an absolutely brilliant weekend of scouting and the sun even shone all day today. All 3 Waterford teams achieved the Gold standard of participation in the event along with 13 others from a total field of 52. Group Leader Owen Riordan had high praise for the teams and was thrilled that both our troops competed to such a high standard. In the final placings the 3rd De La Salle came eighth and the 7th De La Salle came fourth. Congratulations to the scouts and leaders on all the hard work, effort and top class placings. Sincere thanks to the organisers and staff too who pulled off a brilliantly run and enjoyable event. A huge well done finally to St. Pauls from Waterford who won the Special Projects, the Campcraft and the overall Phoenix Trophy. An amazing day for the Deise! There are more photos in our Phoenix Challenge 2010 Gallery.

Band Depart for France (05/08/10)

Best of luck to the 26 members of the De La Salle Scout Group Pipe Band going to Lorient in France for the Festival Interceltique being held from Aug 5th to 15th 2010.

Wedding Bells (25/07/10)

Congratulations from the De La Salle Scout Group to Assistant Scoutleader James Doherty who was married on Saturday 24th July 2010 to Susan O'Malley. James is a member of the leadership team from the 3rd. Brendan Kiersey, County CPC (Programme Coordinator) has also announced his engagement to Donna Fitzgearld, Assistant CPC Cubs, so another scouting wedding to look forward to. Best wishes to all.

Congratulations to Cian on achieving the Explorer Belt 2010 (19/07/10)

Congratulations to Cian O'hOgartaigh of the De La Salle Scout Group who successfully completed this year's Venturer Explorer Belt that took place in the Benelux region from the 3rd to the 18th of July.

The basic elements of the Explorer Belt are a 10 day hike, covering 200 km, while living on a limited budget and completing a number of projects along the way. This year an additional 100kms could be covered using certified public transport. The aim of the Explorer Belt is to get to know a different culture from your own, and the method is to meet people from the country concerned and learn about their way of life, their traditions and customs.

De La Salle Scout Group Pipe Band are Munster Champions (06/07/10)

On a very sunny Sunday, on June 20^th 2010 22 members of the De La Salle Scout Group Pipe Band and their supporters met in Waterford City Centre at a very early hour and travelled to Tralee in Co Kerry to compete in the Munster Championship pipe band competition. During the morning all the competing bands from all over Munster and beyond gathered to begin their preparations for the event. Uniforms were donned and pipes and drums were tuned as the bands made ready for what was to be a fiercely competitive competition. Then at 1.30 in the heart of Tralee Town Centre the crowds gathered in scorching sunshine and the contest began. De La Salle had 14 pipers, four side drummers, two tenor drummers, a base drummer and a Drum Major competing and were involved in four competitions and they and the other competing bands filled the air in Tralee for several hours with beautiful music. When the results were finally announced De La Salle were awarded first place in their grade and were crowned Munster Champions for 2010. Their young Drum Major was also awarded second place in her grade. This was a great result for the band and concludes what has been a very successful competition season for the band. Hopefully they will continue with this winning trend when their pipers and drummers compete in solo competition in Northern Ireland in September.

Congratulations to the new Mayor of Waterford City - Mary Roche (10/07/10)

Congratulations to Independent Counsellor Mary Roche on her election as the new Mayor of Waterford City. Mary was a former Girl Guide Ranger who worked with the Waterford City Venturers in Mount Melleray as Crew on many occasions. She is also a member of the Waterford Youth Committee.

The De La Salle Scout Group would like to wish Mary every success in her 12 month term.

Excellent Performance by De La Salle at County Challenge (25/04/10)

The Waterford Scout County Challenge was held in Stradbally, Co. Waterford from the 23rd to the 25th April 2010. Surrounded by magnificent woodlands the field close to the beach which was used for the event was also used by De La Salle for decades as the site for its Annual Camp. The competition involved the building of a full campcraft site including sleeping and store tents, table and seating, dresser, waste gadget, gate and a store gadget. On Saturday afternoon there was a range of skills bases including Emergencies, Survival, a Water Base and a Fun base which included campfire sketches. On Saturday evening there was a full testmeal and on Sunday the pioneering project was the tricky Bryan Bach Tower. The event concluded with a tough final inspection which had a few heavy rain showers thrown in for good measure. No less than 18 teams from Waterford took part in the event which is the highest number ever for a County Challenge and over 220 scouts, venturers and leaders were camped in Stradbally for the weekend.

At the closing ceremony the 7th De La Salle were presented with the JD Hennebry Trophy for the cooking. JD was a legendary De La Salle man and former Group Leader who passed away some years ago. He would have been delighted for the cooking trophy to have stayed in the Group for the second year in a row. The 7th who had three teams in the event also took the prestigious Campcraft trophy. The top three teams in the overall competition were St Pauls Team 2 - 3rd, 7th De La Salle A Team - 2nd and St Pauls Team 1 - first place. In addition it was announced that the 17th St Pauls, the 3rd De La Salle and the 7th De La Salle will go on to represent the County at the Phoenix Challenge which is the national scoutcraft competition in August.

Speaking after the event, Group Leader, Owen Riordan congratulated the scouts on all four teams from De La Salle who had represented the Group to an incredibly high standard. Owen added: "the PLs and all the scouts put in a fantastic effort, they also had a great time and the hard work of them and the leadership teams in both troops certainly paid off. It is fantastic that two of the top three troops in the County Challenge this year were from De La Salle". A hearty congratulations to St. Pauls from all at De La Salle for being the outright winners also.

At the Munster Solo piping and drumming championships held in Newcastle West in Co Limerick on Sunday March 28th 2010 10 De La Salle Scout Group pipers and drummers competed in a fiercely contested event which was attended by players from all over the South and Southeast of Ireland. James Stone won the under 14 and under 16 piping solo events and was crowned Munster Champion for 2010. He had already won the under 14th event last year and he follows in the footsteps of his older brother David and sister Elaine who already won Munster Championships in the past and who have gone on to win All Ireland titles also. All of the De La Salle Scout players performed well on the day and a number of them achieved 2nd, 3rd and 4th places in their various grades and age levels.

The following won Munster championship medals on the Day. In the under 16 drumming Kevin Hennessey achieved 2nd place and in the Novice drumming Emily Costello achieved 2nd place and Eoin Smith took 3rd place. Elaine Stone competed in the Junior piping event and was placed 3rd which was an excellent achievement as Elaine was the only youth player, as all of the other competitors in this grade were adults. The players will compete again in the South East Solo Championships to be held in mid April in Gorey in Co Wexford and then will go on to compete in the Mini bands competition to be held in Stephen Street School in Waterford City at 12 noon on Sunday May 2nd 2010. Anyone interested in hearing some excellent piping and drumming are very welcome to come along on the day and listen

The De La Salle Scout Group would like to extend its congratulations to Pat O'Connor of St. Pauls who received the Order of Cuchulain award at National Council on March 23rd 2010. The Order of Cú Chulainn Award is the highest award that can be awarded to any leader in the Scouting Ireland. In order to receive this award the recipient has to be nominated by a fellow Scouter in recognition of their many years of dedication, commitment, selfless effort to scouting at local, county, provincial and national level. In other news from National Council the new National Treasurer is Francis Minogue, Chief Commissioner is Ian Davy and our new Provincial Commissioner is John Watmore.

Group Leader, Owen Riordan has confirmed that the De La Salle Scout Group was awarded the System of Quality Scouting Excellence Award for 2009. The SQS Award is a quality strategy adopted by Scouting Ireland that challenges Groups, Counties, Provinces and National Teams to provide a high standard of Scouting to its members. The Excellence Award level reflects the high quality programme provided by all sections in the Group in the past year and the overall top class manner in which the Group is run. The Award was presented by Brian Fanning, County Commissioner and Francis Minogue, Provincial Commissioner.

Our Scout Centre at Faithlegg, Co. Waterford has seen a huge amount of campcraft and pioneering over the years. To keep our timber in top shape we have just acquired a new timber store. Pioneering is as important today as it was in BPs day - why?: It constitutes a clear exposition of BPs revolutionary education theory - to provoke interest, to provide sound basic training, to apply training instantly, to stimulate the imagination, to leave the end open.

To mark the end of their 75th Anniversary year, members of the De La Salle Scout Pipe Band were presented with a limited edition DVD of the Pipe Band's Christmas Concert. The DVD was limited to 50 copies which Pat Murphy, Pipe Major presented to band members at a ceremony on February 6th February last.

At the Annual Group Christmas Mass held at the De La Salle College on December 4th last, Brian Fanning, County Commissioner presented four National Scout Awards to scouts from the 7th De La Salle Scout Troop. They are Sarah Lawrence, Shona Murray, Emily Costello and Matt Carrick who are pictured below with Brian Fanning; Owen Riordan, Group Leader, Michael Kavanagh, Assistant Scoutleader and Robert Windle, Scoutleader.