14th November 2008 was a great day for 1st Finchampstead as we invested the 14 founder members of the new Willows Beaver Colony.

The Colony started in September 2008 and has been running a successful programme every Saturday morning led by Jo Allum and her team of leaders. All the Beavers are new to Scouting so we decided to give them a flavour of Beavers before we went to the stage of investing them.

The Scouts came down to run the programme for the meeting while the leaders were able to focus on preparing for the investiture. The weather was great so much fun was had in the country park following a tracking trail that the Scouts had set up and also trying to find some hidden Patrol Leaders.

The scene was now set for the Beavers to be invested. The river that they swim up was laid out and lined by the Scouts in attendance. Jo called up each troop, there are 3 within the colony, individually and the Beavers in that troop placed their left hand on the Beaver and Union flags whilst making the Scout salute with their right hand. They all then said their Beaver promise and the 1st Finch red scarf was placed around their necks making them a full member of the group. They then turned to salute the rest of the colony to finish their investiture.

We had an excellent turnout from parents and friends and were particularly pleased to have our Group President, Chris Brett, and District Commissioner, Andy McBain at the ceremony.

The boys then experienced a "red carpet" moment as we went outside to take numerous photographs with an array of cameras and then they quickly devoured refreshments of doughnuts, biscuits and Juice.

A great day for the new colony and with such a strong leadership and good group of beavers they will go from strength to strength.

Click on the Photo below to see more pictures