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.
You pick up a lot of skills as a Guide leader. Team work, leadership skills, First Aid, various outdoors abilities, admin, improvisation, children skills, public singing – and event planning. I was involved in my biggest event yet last weekend. I’ve planned multiple district events for 50-100 people, some of them all on my own… More Behind the scenes at a national Brownie event
Friday night was not optimal tent-pitching weather but there we were – me, three Rangers and four Guides, up to our ankles in mud, in pouring rain, putting up our tents in the dark. We’d arrived at 6pm at Girlguiding’s latest event, Sparkle & Ice, a winter survival camp happening simultaneously at three Training &… More Sparkle & Ice 2017: it turns out winter camp is cold
This week, I took my Rangers ice skating. It’s one of the things Girlguiding should be about – oh, not necessarily taking them ice skating, but doing fun things, having new opportunities and trying new activities. We spend far too much time in the meeting room where the girls are more interested in Snapchatting each… More We went ice skating!
Back in August 2014, I went on an adults-only county Guide trip to Switzerland. A lot of international trips go to Switzerland because it’s where Our Chalet is, one of the four WAGGGS World Centres – more exciting than merely going to London but cheaper and easier than going to Mexico or India. We drove… More Switzerland 2014: Our Chalet
When Region announced that it was celebrating the Senior Section Spectacular at Alton Towers, I immediately decided I wanted to go. I’d never been to Alton Towers before and I probably never will again. It’s a five hour drive from home and I hate rollercoasters. But I do enjoy spectacular events and camping in unusual… More Senior Section Spectacular at Alton Towers
I wrote this post three weeks ago. As you read this, I’m having my mentor visit in order to sign off the very last clause of my Adult Leadership Qualification with Guides. Three ALQs! Judging by my past record, I’ll be doing Rainbows by September. And so to the subject of today: my camp blanket… More Meet my camp blanket
In August 2014, I went on a county Guide trip to Switzerland. I’ve got some posts about it dotted around this blog in various places but I haven’t yet told you about Anita’s B&B. There were twelve of us and I was the penultimate youngest, at just turned 29. Kate (the organiser’s daughter) was 24,… More Switzerland 2014: Anita’s B&B
I got home from Edinburgh, having travelled by overnight train, at 10am last Friday. Before 2pm, I was out again, on my way to Wellies & Wristbands 2015. This was by far the biggest event I’ve ever been to – probably the biggest event anyone in my district has been to. I heard there were… More Our weekend at Wellies & Wristbands 2015
“A bedding roll”, you see on the Guide camp kit list. “What is a bedding roll?”, you ask. “How do you make a bedding roll?” And so you take to the internet for help and here I am! The bedding roll is the most fearsome beastie Guide camp has to offer, partly, I suspect, because… More The Guide Camp Kit List part three: the bedding roll
What is a camp blanket? Oh, let me tell you about camp blankets! A camp blanket is simply a blanket you use at camp. You wear them around the campfire, sometimes for sitting around the site in the evening when it gets cold, sometimes as a picnic blanket during the day and if it’s not… More The Guide Camp Kit List part two: the camp blanket