Scotch College

Venturer unit goes skiing

The highlight of a recent weekend was the three days of cross-country skiing.

We put on two cross country skiing training days and on one of the Sundays we had a total of about twenty-five Venturers and Leaders from our Zone, up at Lake Mountain. The participants spent both the days on the various tracks, enjoying the good conditions, whether they were accomplished skiers or had never been to the snow before. For those who were new to the sport of X/C skiing, our Leaders were there to give them the benefit of their years of X/C skiing.

Another activity was a cannonball run through the city, where we competed against each other to find various items, such as a tomato, concert flyer and a book of matches from a café on Bourke Street. One rather interesting Friday night activity was the visit to the recently completed temple of the Church of Latter Day Saints, where we were able to get a first hand idea of another religion and to question the members of this Church.

We had a crash course in judo in just two hours from a black belt instructor, during which we all had fun flipping each other. A visit to the ambulance station in Dandenong and then the Dandenong Regional Hospital casualty ward, saw one of the Venturers hooked up to a life support system.

Rodney Davies, who retired as a Venturer Leader this year, is to be thanked for his eight years of service to the Scotch Venturer Unit. Rod has attended numerous weekend activities; a weekend snow camp; many X/C skiing days to various mountains; hikes to various parts of the State and has assisted past Venturers gain their Queen's Scout Award.

Andrew McKeon completed his Venturer Scout Leader training and was presented recently with his woodbeads by the Group Leader - Mr Chris Taylor. These woodbeads are presented to all Leaders, who have completed the required training in their appropriate Section, and require the Leader to spend at total of two weeks in supervised training, along with in-service training in another Unit. This usually takes place over a period of two years.

The past Unit Council of Mark Wilson, Robert Turnbull, Andrew Yule, Ned Letcher and Heath Tibballs worked hard during the last twelve months, running an active and challenging programme for the Venturer Unit.

The Scout Parents Committee and the Group Leader - Mr Chris Taylor, are also to be thanked for their support of the Venturer Unit and our activities;

Our Venturer Unit meets on Friday night at Scotch between 6.30pm - 9.30pm. If you have any questions, please speak to any member or call the Venturer Leaders - Rob Evans on 9853 8000 or Andy McKeon on 9818 6221.