Notts Emergency Scout Support Team

Here you will find all the latest news about the team, keep checking back to stay up-to-date on the team…..

There has been a news article on the team published today in the Nottingham Evening Post:

Scout team prepared for any emergency in harsh winter weather

FROM hanging up the baubles to cooking a turkey and writing stacks of cards, Christmas preparations can mean different things to different people.

But for the Nottinghamshire Emergency Scout Support Team (Nesst), being ready for Christmas involves food packages, first aid and a four-by-four vehicle.

The team, which consists of around 30 volunteers who are adult members of the Scout and Guide Associations in Notts, works to support local emergency services in times of crisis.

Last year the team helped deliver hot meals, and in some cases medicine, to the elderly and vulnerable across Notts when bad weather left them stranded at home.

And this year, Notts scouts are ready to do even more in the community.

Keith Morris, 45, of Mansfield, Nesst team leader and district commissioner for Mansfield, said: “We are preparing for the bad weather at the moment, and we are on the emergency planning call list for the city and county councils.

“We are just waiting for the call if the need for us should arise in whatever way.

“Last year we were taking care workers out to the elderly and vulnerable and working with the district nurses in the county, as well as taking medicine out to people.”

He said it was important for Scouts to get involved in their communities.

“We are fine doing our weekly meetings, but I think we need to be out there too,” he said.

“For me personally, I was a Scout as a youngster and got an awful lot out of it.

“It gave me opportunities and skills I would never have got without it.

“And this gives me the chance to give that back to the Scouts, as well as giving back to my community.”

The unit, and other local scout members, have already been getting into the Christmas spirit in other ways.

The Nesst team, which has a four-by-four vehicle equipped with a first aid kit and other emergency tools, has been used to help Wollaton Rotary Club – by dragging their Christmas float around the local area as they spread festive cheer and collect donations.

Other Scout initiatives have also been active.

Around Notts, Scouts have run a Christmas post scheme, which sees them deliver Christmas cards locally for a small donation.

Last year, Scouts in Radcliffe-on-Trent and Trowell delivered more than 6,000 cards as part of the scheme, raising £1,000 to be split between the Scouts and a chosen charity.

They are now hoping to make another big impact in the community this year.

Mr Morris said: “I think it’s important for us to be seen working in the local area.

“It’s also particularly important around Christmas time, when people could be more in need of help or support.”

To see the full article, check out the Nottingham Evening Post story

Today we have been over to Radcliffe On Trent Scouts to take part in a news article for the Nottingham evening Post. the article is being used to show how scouting is helping out in the community, especially during the festive period.

We’re not sure when the article is being published, but as soon as we know, we will post the article on here.

whilst there I got a picture of the Team Leader with our support vehicle:

Dear CSAD Delivery Team,

We are writing to say ‘THANK YOU’ for all of the hard work, energy and effort you put in to make the Chief Scout Activity Day happen!

The feedback we have received so far has be overwhelmingly positive and from speaking with young people on the day we were hearing replies like; ‘the best day ever’, ‘really cool’, ‘exciting activities’, ‘having the chance to play around with your mates’.

We do not underestimate the amount of time you and your teams put in, to make the day the success it clearly was. Thank you.

The Chief Scout also enjoyed his visit to Nottinghamshire very much and you all made his visit memorable. He has asked that his personal thanks be passed on to all those who organised the event and to those who supported the Scouts who attended. As Bear returned to the helicopter he tweeted “thank you for an incredible welcome from so many thousands of Scouts”.

Mark Tarry, Deputy Chief Commissioner England, who accompanied The Chief Scout, said, “This event was so well organised and seeing over 1500 young people having fun taking part in so many activities was truly wonderful. Having a strong team of focussed adults in place is key to the successful delivery of an event like this one. Well done and thank you!”

So again, on behalf of the Nottinghamshire Scouts we’d like to say thank you for everything you did to make Saturday such an amazing and memorable day. We could not have done it without you.

With proud and grateful regards,

Matt Rooney – County Commissioner

Steve Day – Deputy County Commissioner

Chris Blockley – ACC Project Lead

There is a atricle on the Notts Scouts website about the Activity Day, to read the article, click here

Following on from the Cheif Scouts Activity Day held earlier in November, the Nottingham Evening Post have a news article on the day:

The explorer, who is the organisation’s Chief Scout, flew into the Chief Scout’s Activity Day at the Harvey Hadden Sports Complex, Bilborough, on Saturday.

His helicopter was greeted by hundreds of cheering Scouts, and he took part in painting and craft activities with them.

Bear, who was joined by two of his sons, also tried out slack-lining – similar to tightrope walking – and the zip-wire, and joined youngsters on Spider Mountain, climbing up a 23ft-tall giant tube with horizontal webs of bungee.

Read more here:

http://www.thisisnottingham.co.uk/TV-action-man-Bear-star-Scouts-big-day/story-13919200-detail/story.html

Today we have created a Google+ page, click here to view the page. There’s not much on the page yet, as we’re just getting our head around Google+, keep checking back though..

NESST now have a LinkedIn group page, click here to join the group

The organisers of the Gem 106 Great Notts Bike Ride have announced the official charities for the 30^th anniversary event, which is set to take place on Sunday 19 June this year. The annual ride, which will celebrate its 30^th anniversary this June, will raise funds for Cerebral Palsy Sport, CLIC Sargent, Nottinghamshire Scouts and the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI).

More info can be found  here

Keith Morris, speaking on behalf of Nottinghamshire Scouts, added: ”We would like to thank the Great Notts Bike Ride for selecting Nottinghamshire and Mansfield Scouts as one of the official charities for the next three years and we look forward to supporting all participants on the day. We will be encouraging our young people, leaders and supporters to take part and raise money for Scouting which will help us continue our work here in Nottinghamshire.”

On Saturday 22nd January 2011, over 950 Leaders, Explorers, Scouts, Guides, Cubs & Beavers took part in the 21st N.E.S.S.T Challenge Walk and Ramble organised by the Nottinghamshire Emergency Scout Support Team at Walesby Forest. The first walk commenced at midday with over 200 Beavers, Leaders & Parents taking a gentle stroll around Walesby stopping half way for hot dogs and drinks. Later on in the afternoon over 300 Cubs commenced their walk which was 4miles taking in local footpaths around the site boundary, stopping off at Walesby Village Hall for a hot dog and drinks. The Cub Walk finished around 1600hrs after which a sausage & fish supper was served in the Sherwood Lodge. The weather was very kind and managed to stay dry and not to cold. Everybody arrived back in good spirits!

At 18.00hrs the night hike commenced with over 400 entrants walking over two routes around Bevercotes, Elkesley, Clumber Park and Walesby. This years Long Walk started at Walesby walking through Bevercotes and heading north to Elkesley Village Hall before heading west in to Clumber Park before returning back to Walesby. The Short Walk route split at Clumber Park heading back to Walesby after visiting Elkesley. Checkpoints were provided throughout by very enthusiastic Scouters offering snacks and hot drinks to those in need! The night was dry but only after. All walkers were home by 05.30 Sunday morning.

On behalf of the organisers, I would like to thank everyone who took part especially the 80 plus staff as without them we would not be able to continue this popular scouting event. I look forward to meeting you all again next year at our 22nd CHALLANGE WALK AND RAMBLE 2011. Further information will be available shortly.

2011 RESULTS
LONG
1st Crouching Women, Hidden Squash (Warrior ESU)
2nd Lazy Leakes (East Leak ESU)
3rd Ray Mears May be Good, But he ain’t no Beer Grylls (1st Nuthall Leaders)
SHORT
1st 1st Ordsall ESU
2nd Bantam Flyers (2nd East Leake)
3rd The Sexy Mommas

23rd N.E.S.S.T Challenge Walk – 21st January 2012

Application forms will be available in September 2011

Alistair Bow & Keith Morris (Event Organiser)

NESST team members were out once again this morning helping Notts County Council deliver around 1,800 meals at home to the elderly across the county.

Team members are out again this evening helping take carers to patients houses.

Dear Alistair,

In my role as Head of Emergency Management with Nottinghamshire County Council, I wanted to express my thanks for to you and all your NESST colleagues for all the help you are providing during the current severe snow and ice incident.

As you will have seen, the work you have done has provided an absolutely vital life-line and brought much needed aid to many vulnerable people.

I know the County Council will want to thank you more formally once this emergency is over, but in the meantime I did want to pass on the sincere gratitude of everyone in the County Council Emergency Centre.

Regards

Robert Fisher
Head of Emergency Management and Registration
Communities Department
Nottinghamshire County Council

Team members have been out in 2 vehicles helping the County Council’s Meals at Home service deliver hot meals to the elderly during this cold & snowy period we have had. We have now been out delivering meals for the County Council for 4 days & we have been asked to help again on Monday.

NESST team members have been out again today delivering meals across the county. We have 2 vehicles out & have delivered around 50 meals to elderly people.

We will be out again on Sunday doing the same work again.

NESST have a news article published on the Evening Posts website abour all the hard work we are putting in during this winter weather…

http://www.thisisnottingham.co.uk/news/Scout-volunteers-help-stranded-snow/article-1688838-detail/article.html

NESST have been put on standby to cover Friday, Saturday & Sunday evenings for the Local Resiliences Forum in Nottingham http://www.nottinghamcity.gov.uk/prepared/index.aspx?articleid=6529

Team members are ready to react to any call we recieve.

NESST team members have been interviewed live on BBC Radio Nottingham this morning. They were talking about all the hard work the team members have been putting in over the last few days in the wintery conditions. So far team members have put in over 100 volunteer hours helping out.

More team members are off out again today delivering hot meals to the elderly in the Worksop area.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/nottingham/hi/tv_and_radio/ listen back via BBC iplayer http://www.bbc.co.uk/i/p00cd8sd/

Today team members have been out since 9am this morning delivering meals to the elderly around the Worksop area, they delivered 43 meals each at different houses. Team members also helped by clearing drive ways so the carers and council meal teams could get to the houses, in most places the snow was over knee deep!

This evening other team members are out taking home carers around the north of the county.

NESST team members are off out again this morning to help Nottinghamshire County Council in the snow. Team members will be out from 9am helping with the delivery of the meals on wheels service.

We have also made it into the Scouting press:

http://www.nottinghamshire-scouts.com/RealSnowPatrol.html

http://scouts.org.uk/news/345/scouts-spring-into-action-to-help-local-services-during-the-big-freeze

NESST team members have been out all day helping the Nottinghamshire County Council Emergency Planning Team by taking nurses are care assistants around the north of the county to help with home visits for the sick & the elderly.

Team members are still out this evening carrying on the work, this is likely to be until around 10pm.

More work is planned for the team in the morning.

Just a sample of the roads we negotiated today:

NESST were call out by the County Emergency Planning Team to help take nurses out to home visits in the Mansfield and Worksop area. Team members are out as we speak in about 10inches of snow with more still falling.

Today we were supposed to be providing radio comms for a Notts County Scouts event at Southwell Racecourse but due to the snow & weather conditions the event was cancelled. So instead of having a wasted day, the new NESSY has been taken out for a test drive in the snow conditions, just in case we get called upon again by the Nottinghamshire County Council’s Emergency Planning department.

The new vehicle performed as expected in the snow, although it was not really stretched during its trials, as it’s a new & unfamiliar vehicle to the team.

Our new support vehicle has now been sign written and the light bar has been installed, below are pictures of the vehicle after being sign written, we do not currently have any with the light bar fitted.

Hi Everyone

Thank you very much indeed for all your help and support at yesterday’s event. As I said at the briefing we could not put on events like this without so many willing volunteers giving up their time to help – and your support on the day was invaluable.

Girlguiding Notts have certainly celebrated the centenary in style and I have personally appreciated how much support we have had from Scouting over the last 13 months.

With many thanks again

Rosemary

Hi All,

I just wanted to say a big thank you to all of you for the provision of services for our events this year. The vast majority have run very smoothly, in no small part to the expertise each of you deliver.

Please pass this on to the rest of your respective teams.

It’s been great working with you and I look forward to doing so again in 2011.

Kind Regards,

Nik

NESST team members were on their way home on Sunday 10th October when they came across an old gentleman who had come off his bike whilst cycling home.

The team members stopped to check the gentleman over to make sure he did not require hospital treatment before they gave him a lift back home with his bike.

The gentleman was shaken, but in good spirits. Well done team.

N.E.S.S.T. have replaced their Land Rover Discovery with a Mitsubishi L200. The new vehicle has the capacity to carry a driver & 4 other people, alone with a larger load area to carry more equipment. The vehicle also has a set of roof bars so we can carry larger objects.

Currently the vehicle is not badged up, as we have only just taken delivery, but this will be done in the next couple of weeks. Along with the fitting of a brand new clear LED warning light bar.

The vehicle is currently fitted with a VHF mobile radio, PA and siren, and a bluetooth handsfree kit for making/taking important phone calls.

The Nottingham Evening Post have a news article on a County Water Activity fun day that took place at the National Watersports Centre:

MORE than 1,300 Scouts have had a great time trying their hand at kayaking, water-skiing and go-karting.

The youngsters, aged between eight and 18, came from Scout groups across the county for the one-day event on Saturday at the National Watersports Centre at Holme Pierrepont.

Here is the full article:
http://www.thisisnottingham.co.uk/Scouts-tackle-giant-water-slides-lateral-thinking/story-12230677-detail/story.html

Nottinghamshire County Council hace done a press release on the help & support given to the community:

Councillor Kay Cutts, Leader of the County Council, has praised voluntary agencies, local communities, businesses and County Council employees for pulling together to keep public services running in the face of the wintry weather.

Councillor Kay Cutts said: “The wintry weather has brought out the very best in people. From the experiences I’ve heard people are really pulling together, keeping an eye out for older neighbours and really doing their bit to make sure people keep safe.

Read more in the link below:

Nottinghamshire County Council Site

NESST were called out by Nottinghmashire County Council Emergency Planning team on Tuesday afternoon to assist with incidents in north Nottinghamshire during the recent heavy snow.

Team members were dispatched to help district nurses visit people in their homes & the team were also put on standby to assist with the possible evacuation on a school.

Team members have also been out all day Wednesday again to assist the district nurses and also deliver meals on wheels to remote houses.

NESST are still on standby this evening for any incidents, and have already been tasked with assisting the district nurses again on Thursday morning.

NESST on other web sites

Nottingham Evening Post click here and click here

National Scouting Site click here

Nottinghamshire Scouts Site click here

NESST were called out by Nottinghmashire County Council Emergency Planning team on Tuesday afternoon to assist with incidents in north Nottinghamshire during the recent heavy snow.

Team members were dispatched to help district nurses visit people in their homes & the team were also put on standby to assist with the possible evacuation on a school.

Team members have also been out all day Wednesday again to assist the district nurses and also deliver meals on wheels to remote houses.

NESST are still on standby this evening for any incidents, and have already been tasked with assisting the district nurses again on Thursday morning.

Nottinghamshire Scouts have done a news article on the work too

A team of volunteers from Nottinghamshire have been mobilised by the Notts Emergency Planning Team to support some of the most vulnerable members of our communities.

The Nottinghamshire Emergency Scout Support Team (NESST for short) is a group of 32 volunteer Scout Leaders from throughout the County who have sprung into action to help the County Council, police and fire service provide emergency support. ….

Read more here: http://www.nottinghamshire-scouts.com/nessttorescue.html

Nottinghamshire County Council’s Youth Service is organising the annual ‘Shadow’ event, which involves 93 teams of 13 to 19 year olds navigating around a 24 kilometre course using a map and a compass.

NESST provide the radio communications for ths event.

Read more in the link below:

Nottinghamshire County Council Site

NESST provided marshals and communications for the 2007 Great Notts Bike Ride.

To read more, check out the news article in the link below:

Nottinghamshire County Council Site

Dear marshals, volunteers and race staff,

Please accept our sincere thanks for all your help at this years Robin Hood Festival of Running, once
again the race proved to be an event Nottingham can be proud of. This year we had more overseas entrants
than ever before with teams from Spain, France, Poland, Finland, Italy and the USA amongst them.
I hope this is a trend that will continue until we become a truly international event.
Hundreds of thousands will have been raised for charity and good causes large and small will have
benefited from the efforts of the runners. Without the marshals and volunteers none of this would be
possible. We hope you can spare us a few hours again next year.

A massive thank you to all.
Chris Sumner
Race Director – Experian Robin Hood Festival of Running

Guys,

Thanks for you unstinting work over the weekend at BabJam, the support your team gave us, was really appreciated and made our job in running the event easier.

The support in making sure that the key parts of the event ran smoothly were appreciated and help to give the event its polished finish. Your suggestions, and technical support were a valuable aid.

The first aid team, as yet again were highly valuable, and we were glad to have professionals on site with us.

Thanks for your support,

Stuart
DC – Bablake District.

The 2007 Challenge Walk is still taking place, there will have to be some route alterations, due to the recent weather conditions, but it is still going ahead.

One of NESST’s founding members awarded Scouting Medal of Merit for services to scouting.

The award was presented at the 16th NESST Challenge Walk, 2006 to Alistair Bow by Nottinghamshire County Commissioner, Stuart Howells.

NESST purchase a new vehicle 2.5L turbo diesel, GS spec, Land Rover Discovery in Flame Red

NESST purchase the domain www.nesst.co.uk