Martinstown Scout group

Indoor and outdoor activities for Beavers, Cubs and Scouts. We meet every monday from 5.45pm till 7.15pm at Martinstown Village Hall.

Adult helpers are sought (no previous experience necessary). For more information call - Jenny - Tel: 01305 889023

 

Scout group NEWS - May/June

There is not much news this month as we have only had a couple of meetings due to the Easter break.

We have made lunar landscapes which look very inviting for intrepid astronauts to explore. We have also looked at how galaxies
expand using balloons and paint.

We finished up the packet of balloons which were used as part of a skills obstacle course and so skilled were the boys that no balloons were burst and they all went home at the end of the meeting.

The cubs and scouts have also been practicing their navigation skills by designing trails for each other to follow using compass directions around the village hall. After a few false starts everyone completed the trails successfully and found a Kit-kat waiting for them at the end.

The boys have all gained their Astronomer’s badge this month, by making constellations out of string, drawing pins and ceiling tiles. Now they can all navigate by the North star if they ever lose their way on a starry night.

This month we have started our Communicators badge and so far the boys have learnt several Signalong signs which we have incorporated into games and tried reading each others Morse code messages – not as easy as it looks.

The good weather has meant games and activities outside – somehow these often involve water and getting wet!!!!

Akela

Martinstown Table Tennis Group

We meet for table tennis every Monday in the village hall 2.30 to 3.30
We are a friendly group who have fun.  Anyone interested would be most welcome to come and see what we are about.
Margaret Ashworth - Tel: 01305 889268

MWMC - Cycling & Social Drinking Club

Meets Every Tuesday 7.30 pm for offroad (Muddy rides) from various locations throughout Dorset especially the Brewers Arms our spiritual home, followed by a few pints. Contact best.ridex2@homecall.co.uk for details or look up MWMC on Facebook.

www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=4620124563

Mileaters

Martinstown Mileaters are a group who walk together, usually once a fortnight, to enjoy all that the Dorset countryside has to offer.

We began as a group in the early 1990s, walking the entire Dorset Coastal Path in linear sections, with the co-operation of a few car drivers! Since then we have repeated this worthwhile experience. The mileaters take in turn a responsibility to organise a walk of approximately four to eight miles, the leader preferably pre-rambling in advance of the walk. Each of us is allocated two fortnights in the course of the year; they select their own choice of walk and the day within this time, and publicise it to members by e-mail and  notices posted in the village bus shelter and outside the shop.

Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays have proved most popular. Walkers meet on the Village Green at 10am with a picnic lunch in the summer months and hopes of a pub lunch in the winter.

We are very informally structured having just one business/social evening meeting a year, at the beginning of December, when we plan the next year's programme; the printing of this is covered by a token (one pound) annual subscription.

If you like walking and are likely to be free most weekdays, why not join us? Contact Margaret Hearing Tel: 01305 889346
or Bruce Robertson Tel: 01305 880008

Waste Watch

The Martinstown Waste Watch Group began their independent collection of used newspapers and magazines in the village nearly twenty years ago in 1989.

Since then we have raised almost £1000 a year - £19,728 to be exact. This money can be used by any established group, such as Cub Scouts, Cricket Club, and Toddlers’ Group. It has provided the village with many amenities – for example, seats on the Green and Information Stand, cricket nets and tents for Guides. Currently there is over £1000 in the bank and applications for grants are welcomed by the Group’s Treasurer, Dave Clark.

Offers of help to join the regular paper-collectors are invited. This involves one week’s transport of papers from the two deep freezers outside the Village Hall and Parish Office to a depot at Church Farm, and your turn comes round every nine or ten weeks. Additional help would be appreciated by the hard-working regulars!

The Group Organiser is Mike Parkin at 889624.

Our Treasurer, Dave Clark, reported at the AGM in March that the Group had raised £2,039 from the sale of newspaper, and from credit received from Dorset County Council for disposal of glossies, between March 2007 and March 2008.

Grants have been made by the Group to the Martinstown Cricket Club, to the Valley Toddler Group and to the Valley Benefice towards the expenses involved with the monthly production of the Valley and Valence newsletter. This left an outstanding balance of £1,214.

It was agreed that some of this balance should be used to repair the door to the garage at Church Farm, which Alan King kindly lets the Group use as a Store, and that some of the remainder should be made available for the Village Hall Annexe fund. However any requests for specific funding from local organisations would be welcomed and will receive consideration. Please let Dave Clark know (889493).

The Group are pleased that so many in the village do bother to take their newspapers and glossy magazines to one of the two chest freezers placed by the Village Hall or outside the Parish Office for collection. However the Waste Watch volunteers still have to spend a lot of time and labour retying paper bundles which are not tied correctly, and so cannot be processed by the paper dealer’s machinery. There is a clear picture showing how papers should be tied on the underside of the lid in each freezer – and please do not simply stuff unsorted papers of all kinds into plastic bags as these take ages to sort out and retie!

Village Hall 100 Club
A 100 Club which raises funds in support of the Village Hall in Martinstown was begun ten years ago in July 1998. Members contribute one pound a month, or £12 yearly, and the Club pays out monthly prizes of £25, £10 and £5. So, the loyal support of the hundred has resulted in the Hall Committee receiving over  £7000 towards the many costs they have to meet, and the village benefits by having a Village Hall of which we can all be proud!

If you would like to join in when a vacancy arises, please let Margaret Hearing know on 01305 889346.

For ten years the 100 club has collected annual subscriptions from 100 people in support of the Village Hall. So far £7,500 has been raised and we can all see to what good use this money has been put. We have a Village Hall we can all be proud of. at 6.00pm.

May Draw
£25 Ian Gibson
£10 Denise Parmiter
£5 Jill Pearce

To celebrate the tenth anniversary of the Club we shall make the July Draw a special event at the Hall for all members on Saturday 26th July