This year saw the retirement of our previous Akela, Pat, who had been running the Pack successfully for many years. The Pack was then taken over by me, Dean, as new Akela at the end of the summer holidays.

We started off by doing the Chef badge with our young people, and were joined by Leaders of other packs and representatives of the volunteers who keep Scouting alive in Royal Wootton Bassett, who enjoyed a variety of foods cooked by our young people as a thank you for their time and service.

Following this, we had the remembrance parade, for which we had a great turn out and the day was remarkably successful.

We then had our Apache’s got Talent night, where our young people delighted us with talents ranging from singing, telling jokes, magic tricks, musical instruments and many more.

Then December was upon us, we had a few games nights, and even made our own mini golf courses with recycled materials which was great fun for everyone involved. We had a Christmas party in the hut and also an evening out at Whitehall garden centre in Laycock, where we had a story read to us by Santa, gifts, and an ice-skating session.

January saw us do games, a murder mystery night, and the Scientist badge over the course of 3 weeks, finishing with a Harry Potter themed night which included potion making, alchemy and invisible ink. January also included the annual Scrap Heap Challenge in which cubs from different areas competed to make robots out of scrap materials.

February was taken up with valentine’s day crafts, pancake day, and the start of the first aid and navigation badges.

Unfortunately, March onwards was of course a vastly different situation for all of us, as COVID-19 hit, and we were forced to suspend all face to face activities. We have done our best to continue providing content for our young people over the last few months, ranging from activity packs, badge tasks to complete at home, and virtual meetings over zoom. It has been a hard time for everyone in the Scouting family and a very worrying and upsetting time for all our young people. We hope to soon be able to return to face to face meetings, and all the fun and adventures these bring. Until then I would like to thank our Leaders, helpers and volunteers for their time, hard work and commitment to seeing us through this difficult and uncertain time, and our members for continuing to face it all with a positive and engaging attitude that will see us through to the end of the current crises.

Thank you all for a remarkably interesting and eventful year, Akela