December 2025 Newsletter

Welcome to your final 3rdCB newsletter of 2025. We’ve kept busy with a huge array of activities every week this term, from yoga to pumpkin carving, crazy science to learning map reading, as well as visits from the police, and a huge fireworks display for the combined Scout Troops. Just another term at 3rdCB!

We’ve had a push on fundraising too, alongside the fantastic Old Leigh Regatta (more on that later), we’ve held a fun quiz night raising £400 for the Group, a Christmas Fayre on Strand Wharf, collected for the Royal British Legion ahead of Remembrance Day, and have some festive fundraising planned at Waitrose this weekend (more below), all intended to support activities and help us teach new Skills For Life every week.

This term’s newsletter is a bumper one (because your editor’s work keeps interfering with his Scouting and I’ve missed a few):

• GSL’s Christmas Message
• Spring Term Start Dates
• Festive Fundraising
• Presentation Evening
• Autumn Activities Roundup – Old Leigh Regatta, Autumn Afloat, DofE, Fireworks, and Remembrance activities.

GSL’s Christmas Message

This year 3rd Chalkwell Bay has once again had a busy programme.

I would like to thank all those that continue to volunteer their time tirelessly to make everything happen for our young people. It is now time for everyone to look forward to a well-earned rest and enjoy some time with family and friends.

A very Merry Christmas to you all young and old! I look forward to seeing you all back in the New Year!

Dan Parsons
Group Lead Volunteer

Spring Term Dates

We hope you all have a great Christmas break. We’ll be starting back with more adventures on these dates:

• Beavers: Fri 9 Jan
• Cubs: Wed 7 Jan
• Renown Sea Scouts: Fri 9 Jan
• Solebay Sea Scouts: Mon 5 Jan
• Endeavour Explorers: Thu 8 Jan
• Dauntless Network: Tue 6 Jan

Festive Fundraising

20-23 Dec @ Waitrose, Leigh

We’ve been invited back by Waitrose for some Christmas fundraising – helping shoppers pack their bags and collect donations in their Leigh store, on Sat 20th to Tue 23rd December, between 10 and 4 each day (11-4 Sun).

We’ve done this several times before at this time of year, raising over £2,000 each time to support our activities and buy new equipment.

Cubs (over age 9), Sea Scouts and Explorers are asked to give a couple of hours of their time to help with bag packing and collecting – you can sign up for as many slots as you wish. It’s good fun to help spread the Christmas cheer, and ultimately benefits everyone at 3rd CB!

If you’re able to help, please sign up for a slot (you can do as many as you wish) at: https://signup.com/go/sUbAwBr

Full uniform please, with either Sea Scout or Santa hats. Parents and friends, please do pop in and see us if you need some shopping!

Presentation Evening

Sat 17 January 2026

Our annual presentation evening is our chance to celebrate the achievements of our youth members over the past year, present awards, and show you what we’ve been up to in the past 12 months.

This year we’re back at Leigh Road Baptist Church, starting at 1900.  All members of the Group and their parents/family are invited to attend (full uniform for members please).

After the presentations there will be a selection of refreshments, and you’ll have the chance to look at the photos of the years activities to see what we’ve been up to, as well as to meet the leader team & other parents.

If you still have a trophy at home from last year, please can you return it to your leaders ASAP to be engraved and awarded to this year’s winners.

Activities Roundup

Old Leigh Regatta

September kicked off with Old Leigh Regatta, and what a weekend is was! The traditional mix of stalls, live music, games, competitions on & off the water, and even a silent disco, kept crowds entertained – we’ve never seen the Old Town so busy. We hope that everyone that visited had the best time, it was great seeing so many smiling faces enjoying all the hard work we have put in for the past year, all raising money for the two Old Leigh Sea Scout Groups.

We teamed up with Alfie’s A-Team to run the tea tent – a huge thank you to everyone who made some truly delicious cakes for us to sell, and to all the parents who volunteered their time to help over the two days. It was really busy and we certainly could not have done it without you. We had lovely feedback, which proves that nothing beats the simplicity of a cup of tea and a slice of cake (or in many cases two!). We made of profit of over £730 in the Tea Tent, split between 3rdCB and the fantastic Alfie’s A-Team.

One of the highlights of the weekend – the 3rdCB teams taking on 4th/6th Leigh on Sea Scouts for the Scout Pentathlon – a series of races and challenges on and off the water, including rowing, kayaking, tug-o-war and cockle yoke race. Overall the Renown Troop team took home the trophy.

The whole event raised around £16,000, with around £7,000 directly by and for 3rdCB. Thank you to everyone who helped out planning, running and volunteering over the weekend, and especially to Marcus and his extraordinary team of helpers who spent hundreds of hours over the year pulling it all together.

Next year’s Old Leigh Regatta is already being planned – save the date for Essex’s biggest and best free street party on 12-13 September 2026.

Autumn Afloat

The weather may be getting colder, but we’ve still been getting afloat this term, with a mix of open boating sessions, racing days and training.

We finished up the mini racing series Explorer Cup in October. 14 Explorers competing across 9 races in total, with some great close sailing. The results are in but you’ll have to wait until Presentation Evening to see the final scores and who will be the champion.

Even if the weather isn’t in our favour, we’ll try to find a way of getting afloat. We’ve had a few days of too much or too little wind, so we took the Scouts on on our powerboats to give them a taste of something different, even heading to Southend for ice cream one calm October day. As part of the term’s training, 3 of our Explorers completed the Powerboat level 2 course, getting ready for their Dinghy Instructor course next year. In cold and breezy weather they learned a variety of high speed and close-quarters techniques on our fleet of Ribs.

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