County Cardboard Canoe Competition - Scouting with our Sponsors

It was a great event last weekend at Helly Hansen Watersports Centre on Salford Quays. Greater Manchester West Scouts held their annual Cardboard Canoe Competition. I used to organise this event as Assistant County Commissioner (Scouts) but this year it was in in the capable hands of Bob Wilson, our new Assistant County Commissioner (Scouts) and I, as Deputy County Commissioner (Development) looked after our Sponsors, Bathroom Takeaway whose presence at the event was new for this year. As well as being a fantastic opportunity for scouts from across the Greater Manchester West Scout County to get together it’s being sponsored by Bathroom Takeaway and will help raise awareness of the Corporate Patrons Scheme which brings in additional funds to support scouting activities. 

Bathroom Takeaway, our exclusive sponsor of the Cardboard Canoe Competition, brought with them their very own double decker bubble bus with free drinks for the teams and a couple of baths for a very special race between Bathroom Takeaway and the Scout leaders.

Andy Hargraves, Head of Photography at Bathroom Takeaway and a keen rower said: “We’re delighted to support this event and have had a few practice runs with our bath tub boats so we just hope they will stay afloat till the finishing line. We’ve also made a cardboard canoe which we’re planning to enter into the competition too.”

There is a great video of the baths as they move away from the jetty!

The weather wasn’t as kind to us as it had been in recent years but there were more teams entered into the competition this year and the capsizing continued through sunshine, wind and torrential rain.

The Scouts from Swarm 44, the Unit travelling to the US in 2019 for the 24th World Scout Jamboree sold hotdogs and hot drinks. Bathroom Takeaway were kind enough to support them further by lending them a bath for a future fundraising effort!

 The Cardboard Canoe Competition began in 2016 at Bibby’s Farm, the idea of a Wigan Scout Leader, Steve Gray. Since then the competition has grown from 13 to 30 teams designing and building a canoe out of cardboard for the competition. Trophies are awarded for best design - the scouts work really hard on their canoes in the weeks prior to the competition. Then there is the Speedboat Award for the fastest canoe round the buoy, and the hotly contested Titanic Award! There has been great progress with the canoes between each competition as the young people learn what type of build is most successful at staying afloat. The canoes are launched off the jetty and some last fewer than 5 secs before plunging its contents into the deep water of the docks. Helly Hansen provide a safety boat and despite the mixed weather there were still people lining the bridge over the canal and standing at the railings to watch the last canoe completely circumnavigate the buoy and capsize alongside the jetty.

This is the first year we have had our Gold Patrons, Bathroom Takeaway at the event. It was a great opportunity to talk about sponsorship with parents, leaders and to get to know some of Bathroom Takeaway’s employees, including the bus driver, David who had to work so hard to get the double decker bubble bus round the corner on the forecourt of the Watersports Centre and Andrew who paddled a bath a short distance but further than our Scout Leader.

The Corporate Patrons Scheme was launched last year to support the breadth of activities the County wanted to do. The County Levy was increased to provide the County with what it needed to support the activities and improvements which the Districts had asked for but the cost of providing activities through the Campsites, SASU and Training of Permit Holders and volunteers meant a gap between available funds and fulfilling the need.

This gap is now being filled through the Patrons funds. At the launch event last year we recruited 8 Patrons: a Gold Patron, several Silver and several Bronze. The challenge, as with any new initiative, has been how to ensure our Patrons feel they are getting ‘value for money.’ For some it is enough to have their company logo on the Greater Manchester West Website and be able to advertise themselves a Patron, but for others, the Patrons Scheme is an opportunity to partner with the Scouts and undertake further ventures to leverage the relationship for publicity and promote further fundraising. I am trying to think about the offering we have across our Gold, Silver and Bronze and what this means in terms of an overhead for myself and the level of ‘Customer Service’ I know we need to offer. Bathroom Takeaway sponsored our Cardboard Canoe Competition and we are hosting two Away Days for them at Bispham Hall, providing activities for employees to practice team building and leadership skills. Putting on an event like this is like falling off a log for our permit holders and leaders but putting it on during the working week becomes a challenge…and so we have it - the challenge of delivering the package to those who support the Scouts without putting too much pressure on our volunteers.

As well as sharpening up the offering to Patrons I’d like to recruit more and this year I will be inviting Patrons old and new to attend a Patrons Breakfast on the morning of the Leaders Conference which we, as a County, are running to provide Training, Development and a voice to our 1200+ volunteers. Bringing them together and overlapping the agendas gives us the opportunity for our Patrons to see the army of volunteers it takes to run the 88 Scout Groups we have across the County. We have 5,000+ young people attending weekly, doing activities extending from traditional bushcraft and pioneering, camping and kayaking to axe-throwing and something akin to being Macgyver (too long ago, reference too old?) Strengthening the links between Scouts and the community, specifically businesses in the community, is a reciprocal arrangement that supports our National Strategy’s focus on Growth, Inclusivity and Diversity. You can find out more about the National Strategy 2018-23 here.

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