1st Claremont Scout Group never stands still! The past week included a Meerkat camping weekend, the Cubs coming second in the regional Edward Shield competition, a Scout Halloween evening, a sunset hike up Lion’s Head, …
Cubs, meerkats and scouts across the district would come together to eat food and socialise all for the District Campfire, hosted at 1st Pinelands scout hall. People began meeting new faces and scouts started to …
Tim’s springbok ceremony was inspirational, lots of friends and family of Tim’s. We started by lighting the scout laws in darkness and then with Simon bean introducing the schedule for the night and then began …
At the end of October, the first member of Scouting to have gone through Meerkats and Cubs will go up to Scouts. Neema Galetta joined the 1st Claremont Meerkat Den when it opened in October 2020. …
For Joel’s springbok advancement, we (As Swifts) visited the Wynberg firestation. When we arrived, we were greeted by a fire Marshall. At first we learned about what firefighters did. We learned what outfits they wore …
Hello my name is Reza Teunissen. I am 13 years old. I am part of the kestrels patrol and Laura is my patrol leader. I attended Laura’s springbok community service at The trinity children’s centre where Laura’s uncle Andrew assisted in Mitchell’s plain.
For most of the duration. I helped with digging trenches, painting walls, making hand tennis courts, and even creating hopscotch game in the parking area. After digging the trenches we took the grass out so we can create a maze from concrete and spekboom.
We had to wash the walls with Laura’s uncle Andrew’s power washer so we could remove the dirt off the wall to paint chalkboard paint so the children could also use the wall to draw.
I felt very privileged to give back to the community of Mitchell’s plain, although when we got there was a bit worried because on the news they always say it’s not safe in Mitchell’s plain.
While I was there I could see how people lived their lives in Mitchell’s plain and how grateful I was for what I have, the lesson I learnt is to always be grateful for what you have and when you have more than others you should give back.
– Reza Teunissen
Permanent link to this article: https://1stclaremont.org.za/smoke-signals/ss2025q3_lowens_sb_comserve/
“MAN OVERBOARD!!!” was something we were yelling over the treacherous waters of Zandvlei. On the 13th and 14th of July a few scouts from 1st Claremont learned the basics of sailing with me in 1st Bergvliet’s Saldanha – the main type of sailing craft that all sea scouts use and race in. Unfortunately no one actually went overboard save for a water polo and tennis ball.
It was awesome to have everyone and to be able to teach scouts how to sail. Every scout there got to helm the boat for quite a while and learned how to steer and control the sail. Learning words like gybe, forestay and gaff seemed to be quite a challenge though
I would love to organise more sailing activities as they are SUPER fun. 1st Claremont will definitely have more in the near future so long as we get people who want to. Maybe we could even enter a regatta eventually. Who says land scouts can’t sail?
Peter Raynham
Permanent link to this article: https://1stclaremont.org.za/smoke-signals/activities-smoke-signals/ss2025q1_troop_sailing/
Jars of hope have become a popular way for 1 st Claremont to involve the cubs in ‘giving back’ on a day when many South Africans do the same in their communities. We had fancy labels and everything! We spent some time discussing what Mandela Day is about and why it’s an event in SA. The jars went to The Hope Exchange in Roeland Street again, where they are always received with gratitude. That’s how we started the term and it only got better.
A joint meeting with Constantia Naruna Cub Pack had the cubs in stitches while they blew huge bubbles using dye, some special chemicals and plastic bottles. 1 st and Naruna have a special bond after trying to dye each other also!
Over time we have tried to instill a sense of ceremony during the opening and closing Grand Howl. This means getting cubs to stand respectfully (for just ten seconds!), making sure shirts are tucked in and hats and jackets are off, and to observe the proceedings quietly in stillness. On 01 August, which is also Scout Scarf Day, we ran a programme on the Cub Promise and Law, and cubs spent the whole programme in their sixes. The point is to get cubs to think about how we can live the Cub Promise in our daily lives, and how this would look (age-appropriately of course!). Quite a lot of time was spent on the Cub Archaeology badge – two and a half programmes later the cubs can tell us what this big word means, what someone who is an archaeologist does, about artefacts and about 10 amazing World Heritage Sites in our very own country, which they all now want to go and visit. They got to walk around a ‘museum’ and learn about a few historical artefacts, discover an artefact for themselves by ‘digging’ for one and
listened to a real live marine archaeologist, who gave us a fascinating talk on his chosen profession and patiently answered about a million questions from our enthusiastic cub pack. They loved him even more when he gave them Zoo biscuits at the end! Well done to those cubs who have achieved their badge.
And we ended the term on such a high note with a Heritage Day programme, where the cubs created excellent entertaining skits using an object associated with our heritage (e.g. an SA rugby T-shirt). We could actually hear the cubs this time! Special mention about our very own Neema Galetta, the first member of Scouting to have gone through Meerkats and Cubs and who has just gone up to Scouts. Go check out the write-up about his journey. Proud Scout moment! For more entertainment, read the article on our very successful sleepover as well as that of the District Campfire.
Here’s to the last term in 2025! Thank you to our cubs, who make every Friday evening so much fun, and to our dedicated team of leaders!
Permanent link to this article: https://1stclaremont.org.za/smoke-signals/cubs-smoke-signals/2025q3_pack_report/
On the 22 August 1 st Claremont Cubs held our annual Pack sleepover and it was once again a huge hit! This is an important event on our calendar as many of our Cubs have either never slept in a tent before or have never slept away from their parents before.
We pitched our Scout bell tents inside our hall, explaining to the Cubs the different parts of a tent and tent etiquette – how to care for them and how to behave in and around a tent. Dinner was simple hot dogs followed by hot chocolate and getting ready for bed. The Cubs were excited to sleep in tents with their friends while knowing that their Cub Leaders were sleeping in the middle between the boys tents on one side of the hall and the girls tents on the other. Once everyone was settled down in bed, we enjoyed some bedtime stories in the form of South African folk tales. Our Cubs are really enjoying the National Challenge theme of My Heritage!
Heavy rain in the night meant that everyone slept all cozy – glad to be camping under a roof! 7am Saturday morning we set of for a 1km at Scouts Pace through the neighbourhood before tucking into muffins and fruit for breakfast. Next it was packing up (dry!) tents and cleaning up so that the Meerkats could come into the hall at 8:30am for their meeting!
One parent shared: “I just wanted to share how incredibly impactful these sleepovers have been for our boys. After the last one, we saw a noticeable boost in their confidence, not just in sleeping away from home, but in how they approached new experiences overall. These moments might seem small, but they’re huge steps in helping our kids grow into resilient, capable young people. Thank you for creating such a safe and supportive space for them to take these steps. “
-Lucy du Toit, Pack Scouter
Permanent link to this article: https://1stclaremont.org.za/smoke-signals/2025q3-packsleepover/
1st Claremont entered four teams for orienteering this year which was held at a wine farm near Franschoek. The four teams were:
Axel and Sudi (team A)- senior team,
Zoë and Claire (team B),
MK and Reza (team C)
Christopher and Declan (team D)
Orienteering is running around following a map to look for checkpoints and involves running through bushes, streams, and up over hills. It’s generally very fun. The aim of it is to find control points which are like a square piece of plastic on top of a wooden or metal pole stuck into the ground with an orange and white flag. The plastic on the top of the control has a hole in it and so when you get to it you can put your emit in it. An emit is a sensor you strapped your finger to. There were 90 teams from around the Western Cape competing in the Scout Orienteering Event. At the end team (A) got 80 points, team (B) got 11O, team (C) 10 points and team (D) 120 points and came third in the Junior Division.
I really enjoyed the event and would like to encourage more Scouts to do it.
By Christopher
Permanent link to this article: https://1stclaremont.org.za/smoke-signals/ss2025q3_orienteering/
The Cooks Meal with Matthew and Declan was a lot of fun. We made naan bread with two dips to start, then homemade burger patties that turned out surprisingly good. For dessert we baked a chocolate cake and some chocolate chip cookies, which everyone enjoyed. The food kept us busy, but it was worth it in the end.
Matthew hosted the event and Seb was our judge, which basically meant he got to eat everything. He was really nice about it and gave us good feedback. The best part was that we all worked together, had a good laugh, and enjoyed the food we made. It was a great time for everyone!!
~ Diya D
Permanent link to this article: https://1stclaremont.org.za/smoke-signals/ss2025q3-matthew-cooks/
For my first class community service we went to the Christine Revell Children’s Home. This is a home for children ages 0-6, the children here are placed here under court order.
We went on 2 days to the home, on both days Christopher and Axel went with Group C, which is children ages 4-6. They read all the books to them and played with ball pit balls, somehow Christopher managed to get them to throw the balls at Axel! Later they went outside to the playground and played on the swings. The second day they spent most of the time paying outside in the playground as it was better weather.
Saskia and I went with Group A on both days, which is children ages 0-18 months. We helped feed them their breakfast and then took them out to play in the playground area. We played with miniature hoola hoops and bouncy horses which they loved. We also played with soft little balls and helped them walk around the room. Later we took them back to their room to feed them lunch. This was quite messy! We were covered in what could only be butternut gloop. After that they were put to bed for nap time and we went to go feed the twin babies who were only a few months old. 👩🍼🍼👶
It was an incredibly enjoyable and rewarding experience as we watched the children play and learn new things. One of them even learnt to crawl in between the 2 days we went there!
– Juliet D’Arcy-Evans
Permanent link to this article: https://1stclaremont.org.za/smoke-signals/ss2025q3_jde_commserve/
Lauras camp was a banger. The day started off with us not being able to get to the campsite due to some dire flooding of the river (RIP Lucy’s license plate).
We continued the first day with some campsite construction and some yummy food. We did a short knowledge relay with knots and skills. We had quite a cold night and there was quite a bit of rain so we all put up some rain protection the next day.
The next day started bright and early (it was completely dark when we woke up) with PT. We then had a few activities for the day such as stalking and tracking and a rope burning competition. Then it was time for one of the most memorable parts of the camp which was the survival auction in which we won some quite odd prizes.
For dinner that evening we did backwards cooking which was eventful. And then we all started preparing for the iconic campfire that was run by Oliver and Simon. The only rule was no invisible bench but of course we had to twist the rules. The campfire although it took quite a long time to light was extremely fun.
Some of the seniors ended the day with a few cards games which some of us gracefully lost. The last day we spent the morning packing and loading the trailer. Getting back to the hall we realised we had to put up all the tents and traps which was quite a process.
Overall the camp was a great experience that I will remember fondly.
– Bridget
Permanent link to this article: https://1stclaremont.org.za/smoke-signals/laura-owenss-springbok-camp/
