By Emily Parsons

Last updated at 14:29, Monday, 15 October 2012

The Scouting movement has been brought back to a Carlisle community for the first time in years.

Nobody is quite certain how long Harraby has been without the beavers, cubs and scouts groups but when the Boys’ Brigade group closed a few years ago it left an obvious hole.

St Elisabeth’s Church, in Arnside Road, has now decided to rectify this, and has reintroduced a mixed beaver group, a boys’ cub group, a girls’ cub group and a girls’ scouting brigade.

Gael Dowdeswell, who is involved in all four age groups but is akela for the two cub packs, explained: “We already had children’s groups at the church but we didn’t have a lot for boys.

“We still wanted to have single sex groups and to be church-sponsored.

“The Baden Powell Scouting organisation supports sponsored groups, which allows Christian input.”

Prospective attendees need not fear that the sessions will be simplyreligious groups, Miss Dowdeswell insisting it was the ‘Christian ethos’ they wanted to include.

The only stipulation is that members attended a prayer and praise service on the first Sunday of every month.

The response has been better for some groups than others, with about 17 beavers – and more expected – eight girl cubs, seven girl scouts and only four boy cubs.

Miss Dowdeswell added: “We are looking to expand all the groups but especially the boy cubs. Cubs are for children aged seven-and-a-half to 11, but we are ideally only taking boys up to nine as we do not yet have a boy scouts group for them to progress to. This is something we hope to set up in the next couple of years though.”

She said the response from the community had been good, and they hoped that the Scouting movement would fill the gap in provisions for youngsters.

The beavers, for five to eight-year-olds, meet on a Monday from 4pm to 5.15pm. The girl scouts meet on a Tuesday between 5pm and 6.30pm, followed by the girl scouts, aged 11 to 13, between 7pm and 9pm. The boy cubs gather from 5pm to 6.30pm on a Wednesday. All meetings are at the church.

Anyone wishing to attend a meeting can call Rev Sue Wicks, who is also group scout master, on 01228 596427 or simply turn up to a meeting.

First published at 14:26, Monday, 15 October 2012
Published by http://www.newsandstar.co.uk