Markydesade

Email 1: I was given your contact details by xxxxxxxxxx who suggested I contact you regarding the nearest Beaver club to my home in East Dulwich. My son xxxxxxxx is due to be 7 in a few days time and I believe he would really enjoy becoming a Beaver with a view to joining the cubs in a year or so? I wonder if you wouldn't mind letting me know what age you need to be to join The Beavers & then Cubs as well? I have 2 more sons aged 4 & 5 & think they will enjoy joining in due course. How much does it cost to join & what uniform do they need? Lastly, and probably most importantly is there any free spaces in your club? Response: We are a Catholic based group and preference is given to children of the Parish of St. Thomas More, usually attending St. Anthony's school. That being said there is no direct entry into our Cub Pack for child as all places are taken by those who have been in our Beaver Colony. We do not have a Scout Group. As regards xxxxxxxx we would not take him into the Beavers given his age as that section is fall and subject to a waiting list. Below are the contact details of other local groups who may be in a position to offer xxxxxxxxx a place. Email 2: What a shame! Sad that children are separated by faith. Am sure that the love of god* should be a unifying thing rather than a reason to segregate. Still, thanks for giving me details of other groups where he will be welcome. * Written by the same person who above wrote "As an atheist, I guess I was being a tad naive. My son does believe in god... Although he also believes in Father Christmas!" Response 2: All I said was preference was given to Catholics within the Parish attending St. Anthony's, we have non Catholics in the group. As the school and Parish have provided us with all our facilities for about the last 50 years, it's only fair that they have some input the group. This is not unusual in Scouting as there are many faith groups or closed groups, such as that run by Dulwich College and for a time there was a solely Vietnamese group in Peckham. I am surprised that Paul O'Brien feels the need to look into as he was told in a face to face meeting exactly what our criteria is and even asked the County Commissioner to look into formalising our sponsorship agreement. Had it not been for the parish of St. Thomas More and latterly St. Anthony's School the group may well have disappeared like so many other local groups have. We are a group that is predominately single faith due to where we are based and where we have drawn our leaders and helpers from. We are not a group that is only open to a single faith. I am not even Catholic myself.