Friday was a long day preparing for concreting, but thanks to assistance
of Dave Fowler a retired builder, we got the boxing completed.

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8 am Saturday morning the chain gang got into action with Chris Ewers and
Denise bucketing, Erina, Edward and Damian getting buckets down to the
basement and Augusta, Caitlin, Mark and Michael getting it to Rex to lay.
It was a smooth operation and having people there enabled us to save lots
on  the hire of a concrete pump.
Perry and Harriet joined the crew for the finishing and tidying up work.
The rest of the old path was removed in readiness for the next lot of
concreting next week

Without a skip, we couldn’t get onto the digging to increase the size of
the quartermaster’s store, but did a couple of runs to the tip, to
clearing the rubbish.  Having the retaining wall enabled us utilise most
of the concrete as drainage behind it and Denise’s green fingers will see
a larger picnic area beautifully landscaped.

And yes next week we need people for digging and carrying next Saturday
between 9 to 1pm.

It is great to see the progress

Rex Collett

On Tuesday 3 December, Brooklyn Scouts celebrated several notable firsts:   the first official visit from Her Worship the Mayor of Wellington, Celia Wade Brown, and the first time for 30 years that we have awarded the Chief Scout’s Award.

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Two of our Scouts, Alaigne and Emerald, completed the demanding list of skills, activities and service that makes up the highest level award in the Scout section.   In a formal ceremony opened by our Group Leader, the Mayor presented both Scouts with their Chief Scout’s Awards and we noted some of their scouting highlights.

For Emerald this included very high achievement at the 2013 Scouts Photography course, and successful organisation of a scout led trip to JOTA/ JOTI in Masterton.   Alaigne’s achievements had a strong focus on service and organisation, and we heard that she had successfully led a major cooking project to supply meals to the Wellington Soup Kitchen, and Owhiro Stream cleanup and planting activities.

The Mayor’s speech commended our achievements as an active and growing community group, and she noted the good work we do in connecting young people with service in their communities.

We were delighted to be joined by Regional Development Manager Gwyn, whose comments follow;  by John (who presented certificates) and Paul from Wellington Zone, by Keas, Cubs and Venturers, and by a number of Scout families.

Gwyn says:   I attended Brooklyn’s first Chief Scout Awards in many years (30 I believe). Alaigne and Emerald have been involved in a number of things I’ve been at this year and really did shine with their positive attitudes – Congratulations girls and to all the Brooklyn leaders and families who supported these girls through.

Great to have the accolade from National and the support of our Zone leaders, and our families.   The formal ceremony was followed by tea, coffee and delicious cakes prepared by scout families – a big thank you to the cake bakers.

Saturday 6 December 8am onwards

• Concrete to be bucketed for wall in basement – truck to arrive at 8 am
• Fill footing where rotten back right pile has been replaced
• Digging out to increase size of quartermaster store
• Removal of rotten totara piles to be removed and replaced
• Completion and tidy up of retaining wall along steps

Adults and venturers needed to dig and cart concrete ( no pump this time!). The concrete truck arrives at 8 am.

The steel beams are up and come and see our new retaining wall.

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Getting the steel beams up , which were both bigger and far heavier than
they look is a major milestone. According to the welder we have saved at
least $12,000 doing this work ourselves.

Friday and Saturday morning were spent in preparing and removing the old
beams. Thank you to Chris and Damian for being the early crew.

By 12.30 after a ring by Denise and Erina, we had 10 men including my
neighbour Steve and Dave Fowler  a retired builder who happened to be
walking past.

It was an amazing effort- great teamwork manoeuvring those heavy beams
down the path, into the narrow doorway and up. We needed very man there!
Thank you to Andrew, Mike Hughes , David Thornburrow , Jason, Mark, Chris
Ewers  and Damian,  Steve and Dave.

We finished with afternoon tea which included delicious sandwiches
provided by Anneleah and Cassie.

Sunday Chris and I worked to prepare for the welder who will  do the
finishing work which is happening on Tuesday.

We have also built a retaining wall along the steps to secure the bank,
created a bigger green space and we now have somewhere to put the clay
that still needs to be dug out.

Terry’s advice all along the way have been fantastic – thank you!

Rex