BB New Zealand Communication
Kia ora
We have reached November with Christmas just over a month away!
Looking back we wonder where the year went. We have achieved so much this year and November marks a significant milestone for BB as we have now received all the uniform orders for every unit and company across New Zealand.
As we approach the end of the year everyone is sharing the same uniform and gathering under one logo and brand image for BB New Zealand.
With the uniform project complete for the most part we are now able to concentrate on the next stages of our strategy. These include launching a minimum viable BB website, that amalgamates the best of what we do into one comprehensive web offering, which will not only showcase what we do as a movement, but act as a rich resource for leaders, parents and boys.
This will be launched in December and will most certainly be a work in progress with much to be added in 2023. It will at least give a cohesive representation of what we do as a movement and encourage more investigation into our movement.
Looking ahead to 2023 we have a number of major events and expeditions planned with the following highlighted;
Cant 140 Camp March 2023 Stewart Island Expedition April 2023 Whanganui River Trek September 2023 BB National Founders Camp October 2023
We have updated the latest information below which gives more details for these events, so please have a look and register your interest now! Travel costs have been a real issue this year, so the earlier you commit, the better the deals to travel, especially by air.
There will be subsidy for boys who want to do expeditions, especially those going for their Duke of Edinburgh and Kings Award.
As we head toward the end of the year, may God give you the energy and wisdom to finish the year well, and the excitement for 2023.
In His Service
Mike Brewer - National Director
0274 967 537
Stay Sure & Stedfast - Hebrews 6:19
We have four significant events highlighting our celebration of BB's 140 years since the founding of the movement in 1883.
We have a synopsis of these events and have updated the information since the last Bugle. Please click on the events that interest you and register early!
BB Stewart Island Expedition 2023
April 14th-19th 2023
This amazing journey will involve an expedition to one of the remotest places in Aotearoa with the opportunity among many other things to see Kiwi along the lowland tracks of the Island. Click below for the updated information on costs and logistics. Be quick, this one is popular already!
Contact: Les Bouterey for more information: bouterey@actrix.co.nz
Cant140
Canterbury National Camp
March 3rd - 5th 2023
Held at Waipara Adventure Centre hosted by the Canterbury/West Coast Battalion to celebrate the heritage of the BB Movement and this event will be open to everyone nationally.
Please click on the button link to register with the Canterbury Battalion (Not Waipara! Sorry, my mistake in the last Bugle)
BB NATIONAL FOUNDERS CAMP 2023
October 1st - 6th 2023
Findlay Park on the shores of Lake Karapiro will host the 2023 Founders Week National Camp where we will celebrate 140 years as a movement. I had the pleasure to visit Findlay Park over the weekend to see the facilities for the first time and all I can say is WOW! I didn't want to leave and the water slide will be there for another day!! The camp next year is going to be huge, so start planning to be there. We will have more information in the upcoming Bugles so you can fund raise and prepare.
Contact Stu Thompson for more information: stu.thompson@bb.org.nz
BB Whanganui River Expedition 2023
December 10th - 13th 2023
This will be a unique expedition to discovery one of New Zealand's historic and mysterious rivers over a 4 day period and stay in huts and tents along the riverbank. Sign me up!!!
Contact Mike Brewer for more information on the link below.
On behalf of the NLDC Management Team and the National Executive and Staff, We congratulate and commend Shane Cross as he takes on the role of Course Director for NLDC for 2023.
We also acknowledge and thank Stefan Grigg for his service in recent years and the fine job he has done, especially facing some extreme weather events and other challenging circumstances.
We will open the registrations for 2023 from December and have more information and the link to register in the next Bugle. Please encourage those young men who qualify to attend this life changing course. We are so fortunate to have the support of Maerewhenua Trust that heavily subsidizes this course and we would encourage everyone to promote this event to your units.
More on this in the next Bugle!
Greetings from sunny TGA
What a great night for the ICONZ Units at Bethlehem, Te Puna, Tauranga City and Rotorua. Plus a visit from Brenden the Mt ICONZ leader. Beach digs, bats down, tennis catch and battleships. All run by each ICONZ Unit. Great team effort. Challenging Devotional. Cooking fires for sausages and marshmallows. While fireworks rocked the sky. Perfect weather. Perfect night.
Blessings
Richard Harkness - BB President
BB BOP Tay Street Beach Event
Hornby ICONZ
Thank you to BB Hornby ICONZ for sending in their photos of the unit in the new uniform and we appreciate the effort to get the photo to us.
I love the little guy with the hood in the top photo, we all know that guy!!
Challenge = Potential!
Foxton Beach Camp
BB Palmerston North and Fielding ICONZ lads joined for a weekend camp at BB Foxton Camp over the last week end in October 2022. The team challenges were run by Echo lads - Aiden and Sam, Caleb and Samuel with support from Dom Tim the two Daniels and Scott Billington.
The lads had great fun competing in the forest ‘danger web of death’ and hall course of trivia quiz plus an outdoor replica construction challenge! Apparently the ‘North Korea’ team intimidated their players to great success, while ‘Walk in Dancers’ team strutted their winning moves and the third team might have been disqualified for eating the sour lolly snakes!!! Great food, fun and friendship.
Best wishes
Richard Harkness. National BB President .
We need nominations for the Executive. We are calling for nominations for 3 positions: a Canterbury Area Representative, a Northern Regional Representative and the position of President.
BB Executive Board Vacancies
If you know of anyone who would suit any of these positions which are for a 3 year term, please speak to them and nominate them. The Executive meets next on the 4th of December and will appoint these positions at this meeting.
Your feedback welcome!!!
We have recently given all our leaders a preview of the new website in development. We welcome everyone in the BB movement to take a look at how it is coming along. Please remember it is in development and still has a long way to go. We would welcome your feedback via the link below. We will launch the site on the existing URL in December in readiness for 2023. Once we are happy we have ironed out any bugs, we will start promoting the new site into 2023!
Margaret Hoare passes away on
BB Founders Day
I have been privileged to know Dr Michael Hoare - former National Director for BBNZ - as a friend. Sadly when he passed away from cancer over 25 years ago, his lovely wife Margaret and family lost a great man.
Mike’s contribution to BB both nationally and internationally was legendary. And one could truly say for Mike, that behind every successful man is a great wife.
Margaret’s support for BB work, Wellington Battalion and Company commitments was equally legendary. Much behind the scenes. Including cooking for an extra person every time Stewart Gray (former National BBNZ President) gate-crashed a family dinner!
So it was with a friendly sense of humour, that Mike and Margaret’s two grown up children - Craig and Karen, both acknowledged how fitting it was for Margaret (being seriously ill for quite a while) to pass away peacefully on the same day that BB was founded in Glasgow, Scotland - 139 years ago!
Yes, Founder’s Day is always recognized on 4 October of each year since 1883 when Sir William Alexander Smith founded Boys Brigade! 1st Glasgow BB Company.
It was such an honour to join Craig Hoare and a large number of BB folk in the celebration of Margaret Hoare’s life - most certainly a life well lived.
The funeral was held at Margaret’s church in Paraparaumu on Friday 28 October 2022. Coast Community Church. The service was officiated by Stewart Gray - well known family friend; and also a bit of a BB legend himself. A really special service indeed! Thank you Stewart.
I am constantly inspired to meet BB people from earlier days in our ongoing BB NZ history. Their stories are rich, humorous and very encouraging - as they too have helped advance Christ’s Kingdom among Boys - and at a time when BBNZ numbers were at their peak. Well, it was an honor and privilege to catch up with many of these great BB men, still networked and supportive through the Steadfast Association.
While we truly miss great folk like Mike (Doc Hoare) and Margaret, we can continue to carry the BB fire that blazed so brightly when they passed it on - and look forward to being together with them for eternity with our Lord and Saviour forever.
Blessings
Richard Harkness - National BB President
Margaret Hoare 12th April 1937 - 4th October 2022
Craig Hoare and Richard Harkness
Richard Harkness, Craig Hoare, and Stewart Gray
Have a BB Story to tell?
We want to hear from you if you have a story and photos you would like to share across the movement. Simply click on the link below and send me an email with your story! Simple! And don't forget top attach the photos.
Funny to finish!
