Support for Cramlington scout group 'overwhelming' after tents damaged and stolen

After a weekend of camping during bad weather, the 2nd Cramlington Scout Group left its tents up to dry.

Scout leader David Cherry and members of the group returned during a later scout meeting, following some better weather, to put the dry tents away but were shocked to find one had been taken and another damaged.

David, who is from Cramlington, said: “You could see where someone had jumped over the fence because the grass has not been cut for a while, so you can see where it has been trampled down.

“We are at capacity with how many kids we have got in the section at the minute so we need every tent that we have got. Every tent that we have, we had up.

“I felt a bit disappointed and a bit angry that somebody has come over and stole off a scout group.

“We have all got full time jobs so we all put a lot of time and effort into making the group work, so it was a little bit of a blow.”

David, 47, described the theft, the first such incident at the group’s fenced off grounds he can recall, as “below the belt,” adding: “They obviously must be desperate if they are going to steal a tent off us.”

After posting about the incident on Facebook, David received an “overwhelming” torrent of supportive comments and offers to donate old tents, some of which he has since collected.

He said: “It was just really nice to see so many people around the doors and even further away coming in with donations.”

“We only really want enough to get cracking.

“I do not want anybody to part with any monetary value stuff if we have managed to get ourselves sorted.”

The incident had threatened to derail planned events but thanks to the donations they can proceed as planned.

David said: “All the volunteers that make 2nd Cramlington Scout Group run, from the beavers section to the scout section and everybody behind the scenes, were really overwhelmed and really appreciative of the people that stepped up straight away and offered to help out.”