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Two cadets and two staff spent an evening at the Fishmonger's Hall, London Bridge, where the two cadets were presented with bursary awards for a week offshore onboard TS Royalist. The cadets were the first to receive their awards before forming part of a carpet guard to welcome members of the Worshipful Company of Shipwrights to the venue. Both cadets were extremely smart and their high standards of conduct were a credit to the Unit. We hope that they will enjoy their voyage on TS Royalist!

Cadets and staff enjoyed an unexpectedly sunny January day at Danson Park, training for the District Football Competition. Thanks to help from one of our parents, cadets were able to benefit from a tiring but extremely fun training session. Congratulations to all the cadets who took part in the District Competition, all teams played extremely well with some achieving medals.

The Unit took part in the Christingle Service Friday 24^th December 2011, 5 Staff and 9 Cadets enjoyed the service which was held at St Augustine's Church, Belvedere by the Unit Padre.

I was very proud of the Cadets and their turn out for the service (just need to improve their singing voices!), and thank them for taking part. It is attending community activities such as this, which raises awareness of the Sea Cadets in the area, and will hopefully encourage potential Cadets to come along and join us. 

Thank you to all the Cadets and Volunteers that made the bag packing possible on 17^th & 23^rd December. 16 Cadets spent 2 days packing shopping bags for the customers at Morrison’s in Welling, London, to help raise funds for the Unit.

The Unit is required to raise approx £10, 000 per year just to run and pay the bills, and it is by taking part in fund raising events such as this, that the much needed funds are raised. The Cadets are expected to help out for at least a couple of hours per day, bearing in mind without these fund raisers there may be no Unit to attend. The Cadets got a brief on safety and how to pack bags (cause there is nothing worse than getting home to find your eggs all cracked and your bread squashed!!) and then they did the Unit proud with their hard work and polite manner to the public.

Over the two days, through donations, the unit raised £864.30 (and a few odd foreign coins), well done and thank you to all who took part and the public that were kind enough to donate at Christmas.

7 Cadets and 3 staff enjoyed a visit to our affiliated ship RFA Black Rover 20th December 2011. The day started early, leaving the unit at 0600 hrs to head to Portland, Dorset. On arrival at 1100, the cadets enjoyed a tour of the ship and update on what she has been doing in the past year. After a bite for lunch, the cadets and staff went around the different departments. The most popular activity onboard was the ships weaponry, where the cadets were shown how they work and what they are used for, under the supervision of the Point Defence Officer.  Having spent the day onboard, the cadets headed homeward for the long journey back to the unit.

All the cadets and staff had a full and fun packed day learning the ships role within the fleet, and hearing stories about how those onboard cope with the long trips at sea and what role they have in keeping RFA Black Rover operating. It was the first of many trips we will have to visit our affiliated ship when she is alongside, and hopefully in the future we will be able to arrange a trip for the cadets to be onboard when she is travelling around the UK waters.

Thanks to the staff who helped arrange and escort the cadets, and to those cadets who attended, we hope you learned more about the role the Royal Fleet Auxiliary play in supplying the Royal Navy as RFA Black Rover is a Small Fleet Tanker.

For more pictures, visit our Facebook page - http://www.facebook.com/BexleyLewishamSCC

For more information about Royal Fleet Auxiliary and RFA Black Rover please visit - 
http://www.royalnavy.mod.uk/The-Fleet/Royal-Fleet-Auxiliary/Tankers/RFA-Black-Rover