Guides and Scouts

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Comment by Zaks Nannie on August 18, 2010 at 11:28pm

I am a Trefoil Guild member in Hampshire UK. I have been a Brownie, Guide and Ranger Guider and I am still enjoying the fun in Trefoils. This has been a brilliant year so far. Camps, Fun Days, 100 year celebration at Foxlease in the New Forest with a celebration cake of course. Last Sunday we went up the Spinnaker Tower in Portsmouth, had lunch out and visited the Guide Tall Ship in the evening. Girls were on board for the weekend for the Baden Powell Challeng Award. One of the Guides was Abigail the grandaughter of one of our group Clare. Abigail is a member of BGIF in Cyprus where her father works. What an adventure it was for her and what an experience. for us to go on board. The jumpers and squares started off as one of our Changing the World projects in 2009 and we are still knitting. One member knitted her jumpers on a visit to her daughter in New York so they will have travelled around the world by the time they get to Soweto. Lots of talk and cups of tea as we knit though. Working up to 20.10pm on 20/10/2010 when everyone in the movement in the Uk will renew their promise. Our gathering is going to be by the harbour at Gosport. I am so glad I joined all those years ago.

Comment by Elizabeth on July 12, 2010 at 11:15pm

Hi everyone, I am wondering if I can ask for your help. As some of you know I am involved with Girl Guides. One of the campsites we have in Australia, Kindilan, is under threat.

Kindilan is a wonderful place, just out of the city. It is very important for Guides, as many, many of our girls have happy memories there. It is a place in nature where the girls can run around in a safe environment, learn about nature and build their skills and confidence through camping and the outdoors.

It is also vitally important to the local area, as it also provides outdoor education and conference facilities to school, community, business and special needs groups. It is a not-for-profit which employs many in the local community and keeps many businesses in the local area afloat.

Kindilan is under threat. For many years there has been a rubbish dump run by the council next to Kindilan which hasn't caused much trouble. The council is currently upgrading the waste transfer station to a mega dump and they wish to place the entrance road on the small, unsealed road which borders Kindilan. This will be really bad for Kindilan.

I've knitted squares by the lake at Kindilan and taught girls about the Millenium Development Goals and responsible citizenship on the parade gound. I've watched frightened girls challenge themselves to go abseiling with the support of their friends and helped disabled girls canoe across the lake. I've worked with girls to develop conflict resolution skills when their tent leaked in the rain and made someof my dearest, lifelong friends there. Through experiences at Kindilan I've seen girls grow into confident, self respecting, responsible community members - exactly the sort of young women KAS and the AIDS orphans needs.

All of this is under threat if the Waste Transfer Station with access from the road bordering Kindilan (Days Road) goes ahead. Girl Guides has not heard back from the council in 12 months as to their plans.

If you can spare the time, I would ask you to watch the following video and then register your objection on the website. http://www.savekindilan.com.au/

Thanks everyone.

Comment by Harrison's mom on June 17, 2010 at 2:10am

Hi folks, Anne asked me to post this message here for you all - it's from my blog:
Hi folks. I got a phone call from one of the ladies who had been at my KASOTG a few weeks ago. Her sister is involved in the guides and was working on their September programme and looking for ideas. Guess who is going to be a guest speaker?? I think they are hoping that the guides can make some squares to contribute as part of a community badge or project so that will be super. Catherine had met her sister (the guider) at a local shopping centre where the guides were doing some sort of activity and while she was telling the guiders about our talk, she even produced on of the KAS leaflets that I had printed and distributed which she had in her bag. They were delighted with the idea so hopefully I can report back to you all when I find out more.
Knit a square, hat loom a hat, prepare a scrap book, hold a raffle for the postage. How much more would they need to do - surely their is a whole guide badge in that?

Ofcourse I couldn't just leave it there so I had a quick look at the guide badges and found this:
Community Action Badge
Choose one of the following four areas. Complete a specific project that will enable you to make a difference in that area.

3. Action on a worldwide issue.
You could find out about projects sponsored by organisations such as Oxfam or Save the Children, or perhaps choose a wildlife issue.

The project:
• must be planned carefully
• may be completed individually or with other Patrol members
• should be worked on for a minimum of 12 hours over a three-month period.

Your plans should cover:
• who will be involved, eg Guides, school friends, community members
• personal safety issues that need to be considered
• what permission is needed, and from whom
• how long it will take, eg weekly, over a weekend, a few hours over several weeks
• how you will know whether it has been a success.

Isn't this just a Guide Company KAS project waiting to happen?
Jeni

Comment by Elizabeth on February 1, 2010 at 10:35pm

2010 is the Year of the Girl Guide in Australia - yay!

Comment by Sandy McDonald on November 4, 2009 at 5:13pm

Oh Kyla I should have come by this group again, i love chocolate but don't consider my self an addict. Clod hopper I think came from Clydesdale horses who have enormous hooves, but I stand to be corrected!

Comment by Elizabeth on November 4, 2009 at 1:03am

Welcome Rona! Let us know how you get on with your Cubs.

Comment by Rona Malewit on November 2, 2009 at 12:27pm

Hi all, I'm a Cub Scout Webelos den leader in Colorado - I've started a square circle club in our elementary school (See KAS in our schools group), and I'd like to start it up with our Cub Scout boys, as well!

Comment by kyla on October 8, 2009 at 3:08am

I was a browine! eventually I gave up because I was tired of songs and dancing and making silly little crafts. I wanted to go camping and fishing and tie knots like the boys were doing.

Sandy, in Canada, a clodhopper is a chocolate treat. http://www.tastegrader.com/images/clodhoppers.jpg

and an addictive one too. in fact they have a warning on them telling you they are addictive.

Comment by Sandy McDonald on October 4, 2009 at 11:26am

Yes please Elizabeth, I confess to be woefully short on knowledge in this area having never been involved. I think my brownie days came to a halt in about 1959/60? when there was some dress up involved and my best friend got to go as a princess while I was a witch. She was petite and diminutive and as a young thing I grew too fast for myself and felt like a clod hopper by comparison. It did my head in and that was that. Sad really. (Not that I ever wanted to be a princess by the way!) So I would love an introduction if possible. I loved reading your post and am excited at the possibilities you have described here. Thank you. Hope many other folk will join. I will mention this group in the next update.

Comment by Elizabeth on October 2, 2009 at 3:18am

Wow Anne, lots of guiding in your family!

I'm starting some KAS stuff with the Olave Program girls in the next few months (Olave Program is the 18 - 30 program of GG Australia, it replaced Rangers - not sure how recent your guiding involvement has been and if you know this or not.) Anyway, the plan is for the 18 -30s to have a knitting day, and then to get some squares done at home. After we young ones have a good head start (LOL) the plan is to challenge the Trefoil Guild ladies (trefoil guild is 'retired' guides - again, sorry if you know this!) to match us. I'm prettu sure ythat Olave Program will be beaten hands down and Trefoil Guild will make like five times the squares we can - even if we get a good head start! But that's the whole point, isn't it!

Very excited since K Rudd announced that 2010 is the Year of the Girl Guide for the Centenary celebrations! Do you know what is happening in Canada for the centenary?

Olave Program is have a big focus on the Millenium Development Goals at the moment, and we launched a few new programs this month to do with that. KAS certainly falls within MDG 4, MDG 5 and MDG 6, so that's what we'll be promoing for Olave Program.

I'll just try KAS with my local Olave Program people (in Brisbane) to start with, and if thing go well then we'll introduce it nationally to Olave Program - I already have the National OP Manager on board about this.

I'll see how things go if I get a change to introduce KAS with youth units. I'm very carefully trying NOT to bite off more than I can chew at the moment (HA! first time for everything...LOL) I'm doing KAS with my family, the school I work at and with Olave Program for the rest of the year, so I'll see how things go and if I can get more youth units on board at the beginning of 2010. I'm also very conscious not to overload the youth units either, with all the Centenary stuff going on, but we'll see.

I'm not an active leader at the moment - I took a break from being a youth leader for the time being, but previously I have organised a 'granny night' for the girls. The guides (or brownies, but we don't call them that anymore in Aust) invited their grandma, mum, neighbour or special person and share the meeting with them. The girls learned to knit 'squares' (although I use that term very loosley - not many straight lines when my girls were just learning!) One of the grandmas crocheted the pieces together and we got two knee rugs out of it, and we donated them to a local aged care respite center.

As a leader (and a teacher) I'm always on the lookout for service projects where the guides/ students actually do or give something. Selling things or getting sponsors to raise money certainly have their place, but I think it is more 'real' and meaningful in a learning-to-give way when the kids actually do something tangible.

So I'll try and get the youth units (for GG Queensland at least) at the beginning of next year, but of course individual units can still do whatever they want in the meantime.

Sandy, did you want me to get hold of contact details for the Youth Program Manager for GG Victoria for you?

Wow - super long rambling post, sorry! Hope that makes sense.

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