We’re older than 100!

Before we get to the details of what made up our Centenary year, we’d like to take this opportunity of thanking all who have supported us over this special time.  We’ve met new people, made new friends, met older (sorry – former!) members, young members and those in between, families, friends, colleagues from Scouts Scotland, Region and District, rekindled old friendships and had trips down memory lane by the dozen.  This is all very important to us, but equally important is that we’ve raised the flag for Scouting, which brought us together in 1921, brought us together 100 years later and we’re sure will do for years to come.

We’ve created a gallery for our Centenary photographs, so to see them all (lots and lots more to be uploaded), please click here.

Now on to all we did from November 2021 to November 2022:

November, 2021 – The Start of our Centenary Year

Everything started with memorabilia displays over the weekend of Saturday 20th and Sunday, 21st November 2021, including a Church service on the Sunday afternoon.  21st November 1921 is Scout Troop’s official registration date, so it was very fitting that, in 2021, 21st November fell on a Sunday.

Town Hall lit in Trinity colours

The Service was attended by former members, their families, friends, current leaders, Beavers, Cubs, Scouts, Explorers.  We were also joined by Colonel Peter McCarthy (Lord Lieutenant of Renfrewshire), Andrew Sharkey (Chief Commissioner for Scotland) and Ian Hunter (Regional Commissioner, West Region), all of whom delivered a congratulatory speech.  The Service was conducted by Rev. Stuart Steell, Minister of Trinity Church.

At the service we were very priviliged that 3 of our senior former members (with a combined age of approx. 270) cut the celebratory cake.  The 3 gents were Jim Pearson, Alaister Forsyth and Charles McQueen.

Bascule Bridge in Trinity colours

Gavin Newlands, our local MP, was among our invited guests and we were delighted that Gavin brought our displays to the attention of Parliament and filed an Early Day Motion regarding our Centenary.  We were also delighted that, on the weekend of our Centenary, Renfrewshire Council agreed to our request that the Town Hall and Bascule Bridge (the swing bridge between Renfrew and Inchinnan) be lit in the colours of the Troop’s neckie, namely our famous two tone blue.  We’re sure you’ll agree that the pictures are pretty spectacular.

The story of Scouting in the War Years Display

The displays (a picture of the history of Scouting during the war years, which includes 2nd Renfrew’s war support input, is below) were well attended and appreciated by all.  We had many favourable comments on the level of information and detail provided, and particularly on the display of old uniforms and the trek cart.  The trek cart was a scale model of the Group’s original full sized cart.  The model was made specially for us by John Lyall, one of our former members, to whom we’ll forever be grateful.

Covid held us back from celebrating after November as we wanted to be sure all our events were Covid compliant and no-one was put at risk. Therefore, when we could celebrate, nothing stopped us!

March, 2022 – Burns Supper

The next event was a Burns Supper (albeit on Friday, 25 February 2022 – a month late due to Covid).  This was one of the Centenary items organised by the Scout Troop, so we invited a few former members.  The Explorers were also invited, but their invitation had a catch – they had to work to help with the serving and clearing up.

Former members fully embraced the spirit of it all, three by delivering the Toast to the Haggis, the Immortal Memory and the Toast to the Lassies.  The lassies of the Troop rose to the challenge with their reply.

We decided to make it a formal evening, so arranged seating plans for the guests, printed programmes and even had ‘Trinity’ candles in our two tone blue.  To keep with the theme the candles were scented with wood smoke – we don’t do things by half!

The cook team for the Burns Supper are due a shout out.  They weren’t slow to tell us that they (including a former member) hand peeled and chopped 19 kg of potatoes, 11 kg of turnips, cooked 3 rolls of vegetarian haggis (that’s 4.08 kg) and two rolls of meat haggis (2.72 kg).  Then potatoes and turnips had to be mashed.  Then it was on to the desert for which they whipped 14 litres of fresh cream, mixed in 5 kg of raspberries, then smashed 170 meringues to mix through the cream and raspberries.  Pretty impressive for a team of four working in a relatively small kitchen.

Everyone had an incredible evening and to see over 80 attendees in a full hall, all laughing and having a great time, was one of the highlights of the night.  We were even treated to an impromptu dancing display by a couple of former members.  We were grateful for the entertainment, but told them that they should not register for Strictly in the near future!

March, 2022 – Our Centenary Ceilidh

March 2022 saw our next event.  This one was much more active as it was a Ceilidh held in the David Lloyd Club, Renfrew.  It was open to current and former members, families and friends.  Music was provided by the McHart Ceilidh Band (the Hart part of the band being the son of former Scout Leader and GSL, Stevie Hart) who did an outstanding job, which was evident by the numbers on the dance floor – it was never empty.

We all had a great evening, including the Band, who told us that seeing a full dance floor added to their enjoyment of providing the music.  Such was everyone’s enjoyment, the Orcadian Strip the Willow went on for ages – our fitness and lung capacity were well and truly tested for that one!

April, 2022 – Memorabilia Displays Repeated

March quickly disappeared and we ran in to April.  This month we had a repeat of our November memorabilia displays, but for one week, daytime and three evenings rather than just a weekend.  Although many of those who had attended in November came back in April as there was so much they hadn’t caught it all (as a result of which there was high demand for the event to be repeated), we were delighted to have other visitors, many former members, who for various reasons hadn’t made it in November.  Being open all day in April and having the ability to provide tea/coffee and biscuits on request meant that many visitors stayed with us for quite a while, many enjoying reading through old minute books, others the photographs, and others just having a good chinwag and a trip down memory lane.  As the April event was during the School Easter holidays, some members of the Scout Section helped with the stewarding and, like the former members meeting up, had a great time chatting, on this occasion to compare notes with ‘old’ Scouts.

May, 2022 – Group Campfire

May didn’t pass without an event, as not sitting back to let events wane, we organised a Group campfire and barbecue for members and their families.  Being inclusive for our Centenary events, we also invited former members.  The event took place on Friday, 13th May 2022 at Lapwing Lodge, Paisley.

Uptake for the event was outstanding and we soon discovered that the number of hot dogs we intended to serve would have to increase quite substantially – a nice position to be in.  The number of attendees also meant that parking would be an issue, so we had to organise buses.

Logistics sorted out, it was then time for the fun and what a night we had.  Let’s be honest, over 170 attending a campfire and barbecue certainly makes for a great time.

Some of the campfire attendees

Stevie Hart, one of our former Group Scout Leaders, was delighted to host the evening and, in his usual enthusiastic style, made sure it was a night to remember.  Stevie did a trip down memory lane for some of the former members when he produced a ‘woolly bunnet’ which he wore to camp when he was a Scout.  The bunnets had been knitted by the ladies of the Harvie family, whose dad was Group Scout Leader at the time, and by Bessie Murray (mum of Gordon & David).  We do have to ask how many Scouts keep that sort of memorabilia for over 30 years?  Probably not many and it was lovely to see that bit of history back at a campsite.  We were also pleased to see some ‘old’ camp blankets brought out of storage and being worn.  They proved quite a hit with some of our younger members.

Campfire

Two hours and umpteen songs later, hotdogs over, Scout Fellowship Song sung, and it was time for home, everyone having had a memorable evening.

Beavers at campfire

The families of many of our Group had never attended a campfire before and obviously enjoyed their evening, as a few asked when the next event would be.  When?  We’ll be sure to let you know.

May, 2022 – Mini Moot

May, like November, had two events.  To help anyone who had to travel to attend the campfire, we also organised an informal get together for former members and current leaders.  As it was a gathering of Scouts, we thought of calling it a Moot.  Then we decided that as it was a small event, it would be a ‘Mini Moot’.  It was then decided that as it was a Trinity event, it’s title would be a ‘Trini Mini Moot’!  This evening was quite unlike any other we had organised in that former members were really getting in to the nitty gritty of uniforms/dates/who was who.  The conversations were amazing.  One which was overheard was “No, that’s not Billy S in 1969, he had short hair in 1969, it was longer at the 1971 camp, so that picture is definitely 1971”.  Another conversation was to confirm the dates of photographs by the style of the uniforms – that’s some attention to detail.

June, 2022 – Group Camp

Moving on from May 2022, the next event was a Group Camp (for Cubs, Scouts and Explorers) at Lochgoilhead Scout Centre from Friday, 24th to Sunday, 26th June 2022.  As with the campfire, we had good uptake from our members and what a great time they had.  No-one had much spare time as there was, amongst other things, rafting, kayaking, climbing, archery and burn walking.  Oh, and, constant midge swatting, so much so that one Scout quipped “these midges are vicious”!

First to the top!

Photographs and videos of the event showed how everyone entered into the spirit of the adventures and the fun they were having.  (Click here to see a gallery of some photos from the camp.) Many of the young people learned new skills, were brave in trying something they thought they could never do, and we were delighted to see that.  Scouts are, after all, not just about meeting in the halls, they’re about learning, enhancement and character development and we saw all these traits at the camp.  Well done everyone, we’re proud of you.

Knotting for budding rafters!

Testament to the enjoyment were the many thank you messages members’ families posted on the Group’s Facebook page.  Such messages are gratefully received by the Leaders as, although we see Group members’ enjoyment on a week-by-week basis, it’s good to know that the families see their young people benefiting from what we as a Group, and the Scout Association, offer.  As our founder Lord Robert Baden-Powell said “The most worthwhile thing is to try to put happiness in the lives of others” – our Scouting certainly does that.

October, 2022 – Civic Reception

As the song goes “Oh, what a night”.  With many thanks to Renfrewshire Council who hosted a Civic Reception to recognise our 100th birthday, we had a great night on Thursday, 6 October 2022 at the Glynhill Hotel, Renfrew.

That evening, just under 150 of us met for dinner, chats, storytelling and reminiscing.  The chats, stories and reminiscing flowed all evening.  Some stories had been heard before but were great to hear again; others were new and surprises to many – they’ll all now need to be catalogued for our archive.

Of course, such events are not just for us, and we were delighted to be joined by Colonel Peter McCarthy (Lord Lieutenant of Renfrewshire), Cathy McEwan (Deputy Provost), Renfrewshire Councillors and the Rev. Stuart Steell, along with representatives from Scouts Scotland, West Region and Renfrew District.

We were also delighted that a number of our former senior members (apologies folks for the ‘senior’ reference!) joined us, so we had attendees ranging from 6 years to over 90 years.  It was lovely to see everyone and hear the general buzz of chatter around the room, along with “I haven’t seen you for years, it’s lovely to see you again, how are you?” popping up over and over again.

All our young people and Leaders were wearing our Centenary badge and we can truthfully say that this evening captured every topic on that badge:

Adventure – for our young people, as the Civic Reception was indeed an adventure – both in the late night for the Cubs and Beavers, and for all of us to be part of such a unique event.

Friendship – for all of us, as old friendships were continued or rekindled; new friendships began.

Challenge – this one belongs to the organisers, as they had the challenge of seating plans for 150.

Memories – were made by us all, for us all, and what a memorable night for everyone.

Among the many memories created, one of the highlights was the opportunity to sing our Troop Song once again in a large setting.  We can safely say that everyone ‘gied it laldy!’ (to the non-Scottish readers that means we sang with gusto!).  The song was a fitting end to the dinner, following which most of us stayed around to chat and chat and chat a bit more.

October 2022 – Former Member Troop Night

Friday, 7 October 2022 saw a Troop night with a difference.  For that night, the current Scout Leader had invited Jim Hair (a Leader in the late 1960’s) to take the Scouts as it would have been in Jim’s day.  For assistance, Jim asked 6 of the ‘youngsters’ who were his Patrol Leaders to assist.

Jim and his PLs put a huge amount of thought in to the programme for the night, the theme of which was observation and teamwork.

As you’ll have gathered, we don’t do things by half, so it was decided that the night would be run as a Patrol competition, complete with a trophy, but it was a trophy with a difference as it was handmade especially for the night and came in lots of parts.  Stand forward John Lyall who, after recovering from the news the trophy was to be in parts to be built by the winners, rose to the challenge and built a model altar fire, complete with flame.  (John also made the scale model trek cart – he’s a very, very, handy guy to know!)

A great night was had by all, the quote of the night coming from one of the Scouts who quipped that in 25 years’ time when the Scouts are 125 years old “we’ll be at the front doing your job taking a Troop night”.  That’s the spirit – that Scout’s obviously planning to stay for a while!

On a serious note, many thanks to all who took part – to Jim and his PLs, the Scouts for being attentive and well behaved (we knew you would be) and to the current leaders for coming up with the former leader idea.

November, 2022

Sadly, Saturday, 26 November 2022 brought our Centenary celebrations to a close.  The evening took the form of a party night at Coats, Paisley, where we danced to music provided by ARW Events, played a couple of games (‘Build A Scout’ being one of the games) and generally had a great evening.  We’ll upload photographs once our photographers have had the chance to recover from having to work hard all evening.  Our photographers have done an outstanding job over the Centenary year and we can never thank them enough, nor count the number of CDs, USB sticks and memory cards they’ve waded their way through.

In addition to creating a new game for the Final Fling, we had two other unique ideas.  The first idea was to decorate the tables with different sized boxes wrapped as birthday presents with gift tags.  Everyone present was asked to take a birthday box home with them and to photograph it over Christmas wherever they went.  It didn’t need to be far, anywhere would do.  We just wanted a final bit of centenary fun to see in how many locations, and where, our birthday boxes would be photographed, with everyone being asked to send their pictures to 2rencentenary@btinternet.com, so on Saturday, 26 November 2022, the ‘Birthday Box Challenge’ was officially launched.

The second idea was to create a ‘commemorative giveaway’ for everyone at the Final Fling and for those who were unable to attend and those who have supported us over the years.  For this we decided to make Christmas baubles, the baubles incorporating our Centenary badge.  We do have to say they looked pretty good and were very popular.  Making a Christmas bauble for our Centenary was perfect given our incorporation date of November, which means the giveaway bauble will be brought out every year at the right time of year.  Inspired, we thought, and we look forward to seeing a few hanging on Christmas trees around our local area and hearing about others on trees elsewhere in the UK and further afield … we already know about the international travel of a few baubles.

Before we get to the last bit of our Centenary section, for our Final Fling we noted some interesting facts and thought our website visitors might like to see them too:

• The first of our Centenary year events was held on Saturday, 20 and Sunday, 21 November 2021 and had over 450 visitors through the halls.
• Setting up the November 2021 displays took 136½ hours over Thursday, 18 and Friday, 19 November 2021.
• There were over 1,000 items on display.
• For the displays we had a personalised scale model trek cart made by John Lyall. John spent over 40 hours making the cart.
• The 136½ hours to set up took only 2 hours to dismantle and pack up!
• Next was the Burns Supper at which the cook team (assisted by a former member) hand peeled, chopped, cooked and mashed 19 kg of potatoes, 11 kg of turnips, cooked 3 rolls of vegetarian haggis (that’s 4.08 kg) and two rolls of meat haggis (2.72 kg), whipped 14 litres of fresh cream, mixed in 5 kg of raspberries, then smashed 170 meringues to mix through the cream and raspberries.  Phew!
• Burns supper attendees drank a whopping 62 litres of Irn Bru and lemonade.
• At the campfire there were 171 attendees, for whom we hired 2 coaches.  Once there, attendees ate their way through more than 200 rolls and hot dogs and sang more than 16 songs.
• The campfire itself used up half a tonne of wood.
• There were 150 attendees at the Civic Reception.
• One Former Scout Leader and 6 of his Patrol Leaders were asked to take a Troop night, which meant between all of them and the current leaders there was over 600 years of Scouting knowledge running the night.
• 200 commemorative baubles were handmade, used 200 badges, 200 metres of ribbon and 45 square metres (which is more than half a badminton court) of shredded tissue paper.
• We added extra verses to our Troop song to celebrate our Centenary.
• Finally … hours spent by our photographers, us all planning, preparing, setting up, taking down, reminiscing, drinking tea and eating cake?  That’s incalculable.

Finally, we’ll give the last word to our Group Scout Leader, Colin Hogg:

“As Group Scout Leader (GSL) of 2nd Renfrew, I’m delighted we’re the age we are and I am privileged to be the GSL at such a historic time. It has been great looking back over all that we have achieved during our 100 years.  We have a phenomenal heritage, which was brought to life at the memorabilia displays.

“As you’ll have read, Scouts cover more than weekly meetings – we’re about creating local and international friendships (which we do at our foreign camps), learning and developing skills, all of which we’ve seen in abundance since 1921.

“While our history, past members, and memories are extremely important, it’s also important that we use this time to look to the next 100 years.  Our current members are the former ones of the future, and I’m very grateful to all of them, their parents and our leaders, for all the support we receive, so thank you one and all.

“You’ll have realised that in addition to our weekly meetings which have included fun, games and badgework, we’ve been very active.  We’re a flourishing and progressive group and always happy to see new members, so if you’d like to be part of what we do, have fun and learn new skills, we’ll be delighted to see you.  If you’d like more information, please contact us on 2ndrenfrewtrinityscoutgroup@gmail.com. (E-mail address for Group related queries.)

“Whilst we always welcome new members and would like to see you if you decide to give Scouting a try, in our Centenary year also enjoyed meeting up with long lost former members, so if you know anyone who was a member, please let them know we’re well and truly still on the go and ask them to get in touch with us.”

Colin Hogg
Group Scout Leader