Boys' Brigade and Girls' Association

Mondays from 5.30pm (Anchors & Juniors),
Thursdays from 7.00pm (Company & Seniors)

2024 Annual Report

We have had another busy year in what is the Boy's Brigade's 140th year. We have taken part in lots of events and competitions as well as our weekly meetings. Membership is up to 46 young people, which is the highest for over 10 years.

Back in May we held our annual Awards Evening, which is always a special evening, where all members receive their awards and their achievements and commitment are recognised. We were delighted to welcome MP Richard Graham as our chief guest for the evening.

Anchors

Anchors started back in September welcoming new and existing members back for a fun and action-packed programme. Our amazing Seniors continue to help on Monday nights, bringing lots of new games and ideas.

The Anchors have had fun doing lots of activities: they've learned about pandas, pretended to be pirates, played with parachutes, painted pancakes, and made poppies with their handprints.

They took part in the Brigade-wide 140th anniversary challenge by making a collage of themselves, their toys and their cakes! We entered the collage into the national competition, and they all earned the exclusive 140 challenge badge. Along with the Juniors, we also buried a time capsule, to be opened in 10 years' time on the 150th anniversary, when our Anchors will have grown up to become Seniors.

At Christmas, they made Christmas cards, chocolate reindeer and learnt about the "Greatest Ever Christmas Gift". We dressed up to take part in the whole-company Carol Service at the church and had a great time. We also had a Christmas party, with the Juniors, where they danced, turned each other into Snowmen (with toilet paper), tried to eat chocolate with a knife and fork and even had a visit from Father Christmas!

The Anchors spent a day at TRAC for the first full-company camp ever! They helped their teams to victory in a series of challenges across the whole campsite, as well as making some cool monster kites, and some delicious chocolate Easter cupcakes.

Juniors

Juniors kick started their year attending the Battalion Football Competition last September and then enjoyed a sleepover at Air Hop Bristol to celebrate the Brigade being 140 years old. This was great fun with lots of pizza and bouncing fun.

November saw us take part in the Battalion Juniors' Quizzes and in December helped to create a tree for the Church Tree Festival depicting Dick Whittington.

The Battalion Swimming Gala took place in Evesham in February, followed by the District Sports Day in Yeovil in March.

The children have also been working hard towards their badges, including a project badge looking at Heroes of the Bible. Egyptians, teddy zip wires and taking part in Parliament week, which have provided opportunities for fun and learning.

The year to date has been celebrated at TRAC Newent with a whole Company camping weekend where many children earned their first Nights Away awards. We have many more adventures planned for the rest of the year too.

Company and Seniors

Both Sections have been working hard on their badge work. The Company Section badge classes have included BB knowledge, cooking and theme evenings on topics from gladiators to snooker. The seniors have covered topics including wellbeing, budgeting, 24 things for 2024 and a world without. They are also working towards the higher awards which are the President's Badge and Queen's Badge. The Seniors have also planned and run evenings for the company section.

All seven Seniors are attending the Seniors' weekend in Dartmoor in early April. This will cover the President's Badge, Queen's Badge and Duke of Edinburgh award.

We have taken part in lots of competitions over the year at Battalion, District and National levels including Masterteam, National Bowling and District Sports.

Both Sections joined the rest of the company at TRAC for weekend camp at the end of March and a great weekend was had by all. One of the best parts of the weekend was seeing all four sections mixing. It was great to see the older members helping and encouraging the younger members.

As a Company we are looking forward to the rest of the session until our annual display night which this year is on 17th May at 19.00. All are welcome to join us to celebrate the young people's achievements over the last year.

After the display we will move into the summer programme which for the company and senior sections finishes with week camp at the end of July in Warcombe.

I'd like to finish by thanking the Parents' and Friends' Association and the Church Family for your continued support over the last year.

Scott Dickens, Captain