Anyone fortunate enough to be shopping on the morning of Saturday 17th November will have noticed many cheerful, smartly-dressed Scouts lurking at the check-outs of Tesco, offering their bag-packing services to the local shoppers. Theydon Garnon Scout Group spent the morning helping customers to pack their shopping into bags and trolleys in the hope of receiving donations to help fundraise for a new, much-needed Scout Hut for the group. The local Scout Group have been in need of a new building that they can hold their weekly meetings in for five years and have recently launched a range of fundraising projects to contribute to this – most recently raising £520 at the thus mentioned bag-packing scheme.
 

 

The Scout Group have been appealing for a new Scout Hut because of the serious concerns about the suitability of their building in Flux’s Lane, Epping to host the Group’s meetings every week. Group leader Richard Mortimer explains, ‘It has been a long while since the Scout Hut was an ideal place for our meetings. The foundations of the hut are now giving way which is warping the window frames. The Group are desperate for a new meeting place.’ Planning permission has been granted for a new community building on the site which, if achieved, will provide rooms for other community groups such as dance groups or chess clubs, as well as for the Scouts. A new building would hope to benefit many people in Epping, being the only community building on that side of the town.
 

 

Theydon Garnon Scout Group has been running for over fifty years in Epping; catering for children from ages 6-14 years, in three sections – Beavers, Cubs and Scouts. The Group provides a wide range of activities for the young people to participate in, from traditional Scouting activities to developing in areas such as creative challenge and first aid. The Group does valuable work with young people; abiding by the Scout aims of developing each child’s ‘mind, body and spirit.’ The Scout Group are a significant part of the community of Epping and can often be seen attending church parades and holding stalls at local events.

 


Their fundraising efforts are extremely varied. As part of the lead up to Christmas, the Group has organised a Christmas Card Delivery Service with special post boxes set up at the local church, school and the Scout Hut itself. It is a scheme based on honesty with the idea that people post their Christmas cards alongside an additional envelope with the cost of delivery – 40p per card, cheaper than the Royal Mail! The Scouts will then deliver all the Christmas cards around Epping.
 

 

The Scout Group also has an online fundraising scheme called ‘easy giving’ that enables people, when shopping online; to press a button that donates a percentage of their item’s cost to Theydon Garnon Scout Group for the new community building. In addition to this, other fundraising enterprises have included a stall at the Theydon Bois Donkey Derby in September that provided games for the children and selling campfire song books and games books through Ebay.
 

 

While the reality still feels far off, Theydon Garnon Scout Group have high hopes of finally raising enough money for their new building as they readily embark on fundraising opportunities that could benefit all the people of Epping – particularly by providing the young people with a pleasant meeting place.