16/12/2024
SECRET SANTA CHALLENGE FOR HENLEY SCOUTS
Scouts in Henley are appealing for local residents to help them meet a challenge set by a generous anonymous donor who has told them: Raise £10,000 by New Year and I will match it.
Now the children’s group is asking Henley people to donate towards their appeal, which will all go towards work to bring the Scout Hall in Greys Road up to modern standards and enable Scouting in the town to continue for many more years to come.
Scouting in Henley is almost as old as Scouting itself – the group here has been in existence since 1908, the year after Robert Baden-Powell organised the first-ever Scout camp, and was registered officially in 1913.
But the current Scout Hall, owned by the Scouts directly, was built in 1971 and in recent years has experienced issues with the flat roof leaking, poor acoustics, and poor quality toilet and kitchen facilities, so there is now a need to plan for the ongoing future of Henley Scouting.
The group runs a number of Beaver, Cub, Scout and Explorer sections in the town catering to over 120 children aged 6-18, and wants to ensure that many more young people can attend to have fun and learn life skills in years to come.
Dicky Thompson, Group Scout Leader for Henley, said: “We are one of the oldest Scout groups in the world and in March we signed a new lease with the town council for the land the hall is on, securing it as a venue for the next 25 years.
“We are looking at a variety of options for the best way forward, whether that’s refurbishing or rebuilding, and now we need to raise money so we can fund each step of the way forward.”
He added: “We have had a very generous anonymous donor offer us a substantial sum to start us off – and said that they will match anything we are able to raise throughout December up to £10,000, so we are asking the local community to support us and donate.”
Rhidian Williams, a Beaver leader and former Group Scout Leader, said: “We are a tremendously successful Scout group, consistently full with waiting lists and we are expanding. We were delighted this year to sign a lease with the town council to secure the future of the site for a quarter of a century, now we want to kick off work to secure Scouting here for the next century.”
The group is starting off its fundraising with a Christmas postbox for local residents – simply post your local Christmas cards at the Scout Hall with 40p per card by Thursday 19th, and the Scouts and Explorers will hand deliver them over that weekend.
There will also be a Valentines Ball aboard a Hobbs boat next year, but to take advantage of the donor’s generous offer the challenge money must be raised this month.
Anyone who wants to make a donation to the fundraising and help the Scouts achieve the challenge can donate at https://gofund.me/c5583128 or to help in any other way including with organising fundraising events email 1sthenleyonthamesscouts@gmail.com
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