Whilst weekly meetings are suspended, international trips cancelled, pack holidays, overnight camps and other residentials all postponed …. We wanted to get in touch and share what we have been up to in Girlguiding across the county and further afield.
STAY HOME STAY HAPPY
All of our members, girls and volunteers are dealing with new experiences and challenges in their lives. The amount of time our members have available to participate in guiding is also varied due to changes in work, family and school commitments, therefore we are asking everyone to participate in as much or as little as they feel they are able to manage.
What we do all share though is our guiding promise and our guiding friends all of whom will help us through this difficult time. There are some great resources for our members and some excellent wellbeing activities which will help us all to cope during lockdown and later on when we are able to get back together.
We are all looking forward to meeting again soon, but this will be when it is safe to do so. In the meantime enjoy the new activities, participate as a family and invite your friends to join in the fun.
Take care and stay safe
Karen Keeling Bedfordshire County Commissioner
The adventures don't stop just because we're staying home – Girlguiding have got loads
of free activities for you to try. Being an adventurer is a state of mind – it’s being brave and determined, supporting others and finding fun in everything we do. And it doesn’t need to stop just because we’re staying indoors.
At Girlguiding we love to explore, we love to discover, we love to find out: we are everyday adventurers. So HQ are sharing loads of activities and ideas from the Girlguiding programme on their website and over social media (Twitter and Facebook) so that you can have your own #AdventuresAtHome.
They've also pulled their favourite indoor activities from the programme. Each week they'll be releasing eight new activity cards – two per age group – that you can download and use at home. You don't even need to be a member of Girlguiding to give them a try – they're online so all young people can have a bit of adventure at this tough time.
Parents, Carers and Families!
The girls also have access to their badge books and many are busy working on interest badges. In addition to this some units have tried virtual meetings, whilst others have joined in local challenges.
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GO GUIDING
How life has changed since our last edition of Go Guiding for parents. Due to COVID 19 we have stopped all our face to face meetings, cancelled events and residential experiences. Guiding has been through many changes since it started back in 1910 and the past few weeks have seen the fastest implementation of change with the launch of Adventures at home. This initiative has enabled all members of guiding to have access to new activities every week via the Girlguiding website.
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e #CampAtHom
Whilst we were unable to meet up with others and go away and work together, Northumberland Scouts organised the #CampAtHome challenge which ran throughout April.
They invited members of Girlguiding and others to join them. The idea was to camp out whether in a den, a tent (inside or out) or anywhere you could think of, during the month of April, and do Scouty/ Guidey activities, culminating in a world record attempt to be part of the biggest camp of all time on the 30th of the month.
Lots of Rainbows, Brownies and Guides across the county joined this challenge, it was particularly well supported in Luton, thanks Jen Avis. Members toasted s’mores, cooked breakfast, made lunch, made hot drinks, did a ‘tea-bag’ challenge, built a campfire and sang their favourite campfire songs, helped out with chores and other challenges – and were awarded virtual badges. The event itself did beat the world record. At the time of writing whilst participant numbers were still growing they were up at over 93,000 participants for the Camp At Home on the final Thursday evening!!! There are similar events being hosted by other counties, divisions and districts. If you are interested, take a look on social media for more details, and speak to your friends /leaders if you fancy being a part of one.
#Un
ms r o f i Un r o F iform
I am sure most of us support the #ClapForCarers community clap every Thursday at 8pm on our doorsteps. We were asked by Girlguiding Advocates for every member to wear their uniform during the clap for our key workers on St George’s Day, 23rd April, and to share and tag the photos taken. #Uniform4Uniforms, did you wear yours? Here are some of our Bedfordshire members in their uniforms.
Before we had to move our Brownie meetings on line, Arlesey Brownies were learning skills for their futures. Sanding, painting and using screwdrivers to make coat hooks. A couple of the finished ones are pictured on the right. Some Rainbow units over the county have been getting together for meetings on Zoom. Rainbows have painted rocks, played bingo and tried many crafts.
#Adventure sAtHome
Brownies have been working on lots of badges Grow Your Own, Aviation, Mindfulness, Dance, Baking, Painting, Jobs, Collectors. Brown Owl’s have been busy making up and delivering craft packs for their Brownies, to enable them to finish the skills builder they had been working on before lockdown. Brownies have also made rainbows to display in their windows, attended virtual campfires, courtesy of the scouts! Had much fun creating a loo roll video… plus Modern Art Installations! (which also featured lots of loo rolls).
Some Brownies have been meeting over Zoom, some have a theme each week, and have celebrated Easter parading their Easter bonnets they made, others have had quizzes, made puppets, done scavenge hunts, celebrated St. George’s Day, did a ‘Room in a Box’ activity, and celebrated VE Day showing off their Bunting & learning the song Run Rabbit Run before doing the hokey-kokey ! Guides have also been meeting on-line on Zoom, holding bake-off competitions, and doing activities such as the "Kill the Germs" Skills Builder at home with their families.
20th Luton Guides put together some care packages for the Nurses, Doctors’s & patients at the Luton & Dunstable hospital and received messages of gratitude from several staff saying how much they appreciated them and were touched by their generosity.
Isabel from 17th Bedford (Priory) Guides has been using her time and abilities wisely with acts of kindness. She began by completing K is for Kindness (Guide UMA) and set herself a target to complete all of them by the end of the Easter holidays. She had a lovely response from the care home – Sharnbrook House Greensleeves Care.
If you have been busy at home doing activities, let your leader know what you have been up to and share a few photos.
County Shield Challenge
Events rather overtook this popular challenge so we extended the deadline, but are now going to bring it to a close by 7th June 2020. We will then judge the entries, and there are prizes for each element of the challenge and the Shield itself will then be awarded to the overall winner. Like all gatherings, the Finals Day has had to be cancelled, but we are looking at other exciting and unusual ways to celebrate and reward the girls' magnificent efforts. If you do have an entry you haven’t yet submitted, please send it to: Chris at countyshield2020@bedsguiding.org.uk.
If you would like to join us as a volunteer and help organise fantastic events like these just get in touch.
www.bedsguiding.org.uk
ome H t A s e r u t n e #Adv
In April a group of Brownies from Stopsley South District should have been going on their first camping experience to Girlguiding's brand new Twist Tech camp at Foxlease. So that we didn't miss the opportunity to have some fun and try something new, the Brownies were sent a pack of activities in the post based around the zones of the original camp.
nes o Z r u o F e h T •
YOU
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YOUR EVERYDAY
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YOUR FUTURE
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YOUR UNIVERSE
This one’s all about you (and the 7 billion other humans on the planet!). How can cutting edge science and tech keep us all healthy? So the Brownies did a word search to see if they could identify different types of wearable fitness tech and fitness apps.
Look at the world around you and you’ll see technology is everywhere, from how we communicate to the clothes we wear and what we watch. The Brownies had a go at activities to enable them to achieve the Google badge which is mainly based around learning coding. We had some great instructions given to a 'robot' dad to make an amazing cup of tea.
What’s next? Enter the brave new world of tomorrow’s technology and think about how it might change how we live. This zone was much more challenging, unfortunately I don't have the power to give the girls the opportunity to try out new pieces of tech! So we challenged the Brownies to become the inventor and have a go at their Inventing badge. There was a 'swiss army' watch (name pending) that James Bond would have been proud of along with many robots that kept your room tidy!
Go where no guiding unit has gone before. Explore planet earth, the environment and the mind-bending universe beyond. This zone saw the Brownies, and their families, donning a VR headset. The Brownies were able to have a 360º of the space station with astronauts Chris Hadfield, Mae Jemison, Mike Massimino and Nicole Stott, and visit six exoplanets. Angel's mum said 'The 3D experience is amazing, the kids love it'. This was by far the most popular activity and I'm glad that I had the opportunity to be able to offer it to the Brownies.
The fun did not stop once the activities were completed as many indoor tents were built in bedrooms and living rooms! The Brownies and Leaders are looking forward to seeing if we can go next year instead. Maybe we can get a coach load of Brownies, Guides and Rangers to join us.
Guiding Lights
Have you heard that we are asking all Girlguiding members to place a lit candle (real or battery) in their windows every Sunday evening from 7.10pm - 8.20pm whilst Girlguiding activities are suspended to keep our ‘guiding light’ alive (Time is 1910 to 2020!). If you do - why not share a picture?
Anglia – Pass it on – Guiding Light – did you submit a video clip? Due to the coronavirus situation and the suspension of all face to face unit meetings, everyone is working hard to keep the guiding light alive. With the help of our Chief Commissioner Tracy Foster and Deputy Chief Commissioner Andrea Oughton they made a video of lots of members across the regions ‘virtually’ passing the guiding light between each other. Girls and members were asked to send in a video of themselves passing the guiding light, which were then edited together into a single video. Take a look on Anglia’s social media on 23rd April for their ‘Pass The Candle’ video to see if you can spot anyone you recognise. Why not try making a similar video of your own like they have done in varying areas around the county.
Girlguiding Bedfordshire Celebrates VE Day in Style
Mr Hugley in lockdown
On the 21st April Joy, a Brownie from Dunstable, decided to try and make people smile in lockdown, and raise money for the L&D Hospital Charitable Fund. Her target was to raise £1000. Her Mum Suzi, helped her by setting up a Facebook page to share pictures of what Mr Hugley was up to each day, and track progress on number of followers and funds raised. Since she started Joy has been featured on the front cover of the local newspaper, the Dunstable Gazette, and been interviewed on two local radio stations, 3CR and Heart. She has now exceeded her target, and raised over £1,000, and has over 500 followers.
They are not stopping yet. She has decided that Mr Hugley will continue to appear on a daily basis until lockdown ends, to see how much she can raise. Mr Hugley has been up to all sorts, do check out the Facebook page, and he still has lots of plans.
If you want to donate here’s the link: https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/mrhugleyinlockdown
Get In Touch...
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GG-PC&F No.6 June 20
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