I’ve been a Girlguiding leader since 2007 and I was a Young Leader and a Guide, Brownie and Rainbow before that. I’ve been involved since I was five years old and now I’m a qualified Brownie, Guide & Ranger leader, a county leadership mentor, an archery instructor, fencing coach, paddlesport assistant, member of the Trefoil Guild and in March 2024, I’m starting as Division Commissioner so I have a lot of hats!
There’s a lot of great stuff about being a Girlguiding volunteer – community, teamwork, inspiring the girls and so on – but my favourite bit is that I get to have adventures and I get to introduce these kids to their first taste of adventure. I know my Rangers will still be talking about that time they went to winter camp when they’re my age. Some of the girls who visit the boathouse will go on to have a lifelong love of paddling. Maybe some of them will join an archery or fencing club on the strength of my taster session. And I’ve been on the receiving end of that. I take a tent and camp around Iceland and I know I wouldn’t do that if I hadn’t learned to camp when I was a Guide. Would I be on this kayaking leadership journey if we hadn’t done that one pool session when I was a Guide? How many adventures can I tick off as things I first tried because of Guides?
I post a fair bit about Girlguiding, mostly about the adventures and the camps because those are the bits that are relevant here to a travel/outdoors/adventure blog but to give you a few highlights from Girlguiding themselves: we help all girls know they can do anything. We open up a world of possibilities to girls from 4 to 18 – one where they can do anything. Rainbows welcomes all girls from 4 to 7 years old for play, learning and tons of fun in a colourful, safe space. Brownies welcomes all girls from 7 to 10 years old for nonstop fun, learning and adventure. Guides is a relaxed, welcoming space where you can have fun, learn and be yourself with good friends from 10 to 14 years old, and Rangers is your space – where you get together with other girls from 14 to 18 to have fun, learn more, give back, hang out, and just be you. We’re over 300,000 girls from 4 to 18 who come together to laugh, learn, explore and have adventures. We’re over 70,000 volunteers who make guiding happen by giving our time, talents, enthusiasm and
care for girls.
When I went to Pax Lodge for the Thinking Day weekend a few years ago – 2016? 2017? – I completed their challenge and the receptionist who signed it off said they’d never seen a challenge completed so thoroughly. I might do a blog post about it later in the year. It’s partly about Pax… More The Our Chalet Challenge
Thursday was our last full day. Really, it was our last day at all. We’d all be leaving fairly early on Friday morning, having accomplished nothing more than a quick breakfast and the last of our packing. We met at 9am at the flagpole with our hiking stuff because today we were going to the… More Our Chalet: walking to the woodcarver on Thursday
After our busy day on Tuesday and our late night, Wednesday started in a leisurely fashion. Instead of being summoned to breakfast at 8am by a bell, we had a casual drop-in brunch from 9.30. It had the usual breakfast items of toast and cereal but it also had two baskets of miniature croissants and… More Our Chalet: Lazy Wednesday
Our first full day at Our Chalet is Tuesday. Monday is spent flying to Switzerland, taking two trains along foggy lakesides and a final bus ride into increasingly perfect mountain views. Then we get settled in and introduced to our new home. On Tuesday we’re up early for the Pinning Ceremony, a celebration of international… More Our Chalet: Tuesday up the mountain
One of the things my Brownie parents comment on the most is “It would be nice if she could have gone to camp”. Yeah, it would, but we don’t have a camp licence in the unit, we’re struggling to keep the unit running week-to-week and we don’t have as much free time as you might… More My first Brownie camp
In previous years I’ve written Guide Camp Kit List posts on “What is a plate bag?“, “what is a camp blanket?” and “how to make a bedding roll” and they’re perennial favourites that have huge spikes in views in the summer months. But I’ve never written an actual guide to what to pack for Guide… More The Guide Camp Kit List: What to pack for camp
Last week I went to West Sussex for a couple of days of training. I’ve talked before about my forays into becoming a casual (read: occasional) outdoor activity instructor (archery | fencing | selection day) The full-time instructors were over at the training centre for two weeks (depending on what they were already qualified in)… More Bushcraft training day
I’ve talked before about getting my archery instructor qualification and before the end of the month I’ll tell you all about the climbing instructor training but for now, I’m going to tell you what it’s like to actually teaching archery sessions with a group of teenagers. The teenagers in question were my current Rangers, aged… More Inspiring kids: archery vs Rangers
One of the big things in my life is Girlguiding. I’ve been a volunteer for eleven and a half years now. Well, no, I’ve been an adult leader for eleven and a half years now. I was an occasional unit helper while I was away at university and I was a Young Leader for a… More Inspiring kids: introduction to fencing
Sparkle & Ice is Girlguiding’s big winter survival camp event. This was its third year and also my third year there. Sparkle & Ice happens at three training & activity centres simultaneously – Waddow in Lancashire, Blackland Farm in Sussex and Foxlease in Hampshire. I took my Rangers to Foxlease and the adventure started with… More Sparkle & Ice 2019: Sparkle & Ice was sparkly and icy!