Santa’s float raises over £1000 for good causes

Burley Scout & Guide Group arranged for Santa to visit Burley again this year! How fantastic to see so many villagers from Burley-in-Wharfedale who braved the wind & cold last week to wave & chat to Santa & his elves, when they toured Burley! It was so lovely to see so many very enthusiastic & happy smiling faces, young & old, who were very excited to meet him. The faces of the children lit up when they saw Santa & he handed out out chocolates, it made their day!

A huge thank you to all who gave a donation. Your amazing generosity raised over £1,000. Burley Scout & Guide Group thank you all for your support & send best wishes for 2024!

Dream HQ becomes a reality for Burley Scouts and Guides

AFTER five hard years of tireless fundraising the dream of a new headquarters for Burley Scouts and Guides is about to become a reality.

The new building in Peel Place, Burley-in-Wharfedale is due to be completed in the next few weeks.

It features two large meeting rooms, each with its own kitchen and breakout space. With over 350 youngsters using the building each week it is a superb facility for the young people of Burley-in-Wharfedale now and in the future..

Guide leader Sue Vine said the Scout & Guide Group were extremely grateful and overwhelmed by the generosity of the local community.

“We would like to thank all the local people who donated or raised funds to make this possible,” she said. “We are having the official opening of the new Burley Scout & Guide Headquarters on Saturday, September 28 and this will be followed by ‘open house’ from 3.30pm to 6pm for anyone to come look round, and enjoy tea and cakes.”

“We are amazed that so many people have helped us over the last five years by raising money and supporting us in so many ways. Much of the money has been raised by hard fundraising and by local community and individual donations. We want to thank everyone who has helped us however small by inviting them into our HQ so we can say a very big thank you for all their support. Everyone is most welcome.”

She added: “We still have around £27,000 to raise but with continuing fundraising – running the village bonfire and fireworks night, Santa sleigh and taking part in local events, we will manage to raise the remaining amount.

“Leaders are delighted that Rainbows, Beavers, Brownies, Cubs, Guides, Scouts, Rangers and Explorers have now started meeting in the new building and are thrilled with their new home. With more space we have already opened another Brownie unit and hope to open more units in the future. We would welcome any new volunteers to help run a unit.”

 

https://www.ilkleygazette.co.uk/news/17908074.dream-hq-becomes-reality-burley-scouts-guides/

 

£1m boost for village facilities

Burley-in-Wharfedale residents are celebrating a £1million investment in community facilities.

This has ben made possible by almost £500k of fundraising by supporters of Burley Scouts and Guides, and a £500k programme of refurbishment in the Queens Hall and library was made possible by the Parish Council.

The new scout and guide hut was made possible thanks to the tireless energy of volunteer fundraisers. The HQ has been built on the same site as the old building in Peel Place but the size and layout better reflects current requirements for modern day Scouting and Guiding, and its rooms will allow different meetings to be held concurrently. The building has two large meeting rooms, and each meeting room has its own kitchen space, and its own breakout space.

The new headquarters sees its official opening on September 28. Bryan Collins, chairman of the Scouts and Guides, said: “At the end of the project we hope you will agree that we have created a fine facility for helping us to run our training programmes, to encourage village youngsters to develop into responsible citizens and that we have also provided a valuable community facility.

“I would particularly like to thank the many volunteers who have driven this project and also the generosity of local people who donated or raised funds.”

Cllr Wild, who is also an executive committee member of the Scouts and Guides, added: “These projects have made a long-lasting positive impact upon the lives of many people in the Burley.

“With limited resources we focus on areas where we think we can make the biggest positive impact in the village, and these projects are fine examples of what’s possible with a strong community spirit and the support of many volunteers and supporters.”

https://www.ilkleygazette.co.uk/news/17865486.1m-boost-village-facilities/

New HQ fund bags £2,000 from Tesco’s community grant scheme

Burley-in-Wharefdale Scouts and Guides is delighted to announce it has bagged £2,000 from Tesco’s Bags of Help community grant scheme.

Bags of Help is run in partnership with environmental charity Groundwork, and sees grants raised from the sale of carrier bags awarded to thousands of local community projects every year. Since launching in 2015, it’s provided more than £40 million to over 9,700 local community projects.

Millions of shoppers have voted in Tesco stores up and down the country and it can now be revealed Burley-in-Wharefdale Scouts and Guides has been awarded £2,000

Alec Brown, Tesco’s Head of Community, said:“Bags of Help has been a fantastic success and we’ve been overwhelmed by the response from customers. It’s such a special scheme because it’s local people who decide how the money will be spent in their community. We can’t wait to see the projects come to life.”

Voting ran in stores throughout September and October with customers choosing which local project they would like to get the top award using a token given to them at the checkout.

Tesco customers get the chance to vote for three different groups each time they shop. Every other month, when votes are collected, three groups in each of Tesco’s regions are awarded funding.

Groundwork’s National Chief Executive, Graham Duxbury, said: “Bags of Help continues to enable local communities up and down the UK to improve the local spaces and places that matter to them. The diversity of projects that are being funded shows that local communities have a passion to create something great in their area. We are pleased to be able to be a part of the journey and provide support and encouragement to help local communities thrive.”

Wonder Woman Rebecca and her world record attempt

Rebecca César de Sá is hoping to break a Guinness World Record at the London Marathon on April 23rd 2017 under the category ‘fastest marathon in film costume – female’.

Wonder woman world record attempt

Becca wanted a Guinness World Record attempt for some time, inspired by her 3 boys fascination of them. They challenged her – ‘Mum why don’t you to try break a world record?’  so now she has the opportunity to make this a possibility.

Her costume has been verified and approved by Guinness World Record, now all that remains is training and fundraising…

Most importantly, she is making the world record attempt on behalf of the Scout and Guide group ito raise money for the new HQ appeal.

Helen Haskins from the Burley Scout and Guide HQ fundraising group has said “We are really excited with the support from ‘Wonder Woman’ Rebecca and wish her all the best with her training. Thanks to the generosity of local people and the hard work of all our fundraisers, the group has raised over £180,000 to date and is nearly half way to its target of £400,000 for the new HQ “.

The present building was built in 1968 and is now too small for our needs as well as having very inadequate insulation, toilet facilities, storage and weatherproofing. The plan is that the new larger building will also be available for community use, when not in use by the Scouts and Guides.

Becca hopes to break the current world record of 3:44:18 on behalf of the Scout and Guide Hut appeal.

There is only only hitch, she is not the only female attempting this record at the London marathon. Let’s just hope she is  faster…

Please support this great cause for the local community. Any donation, however small or insignificant it may seem, will be very gratefully received.

All sponsor money goes directly to the Scout and Guide Hut Appeal.

 

HQ Pyjama Party week – BBC Radio 2 interview

Cub Oscar Shinn wanted to help raise money for the new HQ fund and receive one of the special Star Fundraiser badges.  He offered to hold an HQ Pyjama Party week this week: everyone is to turn up to their regular meeting in thier pyjamas… including leaders!   Oscar is providing hot chocolate and biscuits, and the leaders will act out a bedtime story!   In exchange everyone pays £1, raising £50 on its first night!


Oscar went further and was interviewed by Chris Evans on his Radio 2 breakfast programme to tell everyone what he was doing in the “kids doing something for the first time” slot on the programme.  He then appeared the following day to report back how the first night went.   Chris Evans was so impressed he has pledged some cash to the new HQ fund!

Well done Oscar, we are mighty proud of you.   Great publicity for us too!

If anyone wants to listen you can listen again on i player radio http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08bqzwm. 

(interview time is around 7.30 am)
Thanks to all the leaders who agreed to take part in this fund raising event

Donation from Waitrose’s Community Matters

Burley Scouts and Guides collected £328 from Waitrose’s Community Matters charity. Thank you Waitrose Otley and all who supported!

waitrose cheque

 

After shopping in the Otley branch, customers were given a token to place in a box of the good cause they’d most like to support. The more tokens a cause gets, the bigger the donation they receive. Each month every Waitrose branch donates £1,000 between 3 local good causes