Be Prepared Avon

A month ago, on March 22nd, a group of BUGS (Bath University Guides and Scouts), ex-BUGS, and local Scout Leaders gathered at Cleeve Hill campsite in Bath for a weekend of survival skills in the form of Be Prepared Avon. Important things first, we got a campfire going and some food in the oven! We had a nice relaxing evening sat around catching up with friends and drinking a bit before heading to our tents for the night.

We were woken bright and early by a call for breakfast (bacon rolls!) and a staff briefing. We then grabbed radios and split off into various tasks - several people donned high vis and headed out to the road to direct parents and leaders, some people went off to build fires and set up various bases, and I ended up at the bag drop tent. At 9:00 the Scouts (and a few Guides!) started arriving in dribs and drabs. They were walked up from the nearby school by volunteers and brought up to my tent where they could put all their bags for the day. I then sent them back down to the large tent we had set up in the car park with benches and a projector in. Once all the kids had arrived (close to 100!) they were briefed on the situation for the day - there has been an earthquake and you need to survive in your family (all the kids were muddled up into groups of about 8). There were points on offer for completing the task successfully and also for teamwork and leadership, as well as the potential for volunteers to deduct points for bad bahaviour. All the leaders were taken into the hut and also briefed on their role for the day - they were assigned a base for 3 sessions at a time to assist the volunteer who was running it.

Once everyone had been briefed, the kids all headed out into one of the fields to meet their new family. They also did the 'suitcase activity' - they had a large bag of various items and a smaller bag which they could take with them. They had to decide, as a family, which items were important enough to take with them and then make them fit in the bag. They would get points at each base for having the correct item in their bag. They were also told that they needed to look after the bag very well - if it was found unattended, it would be taken and they would lose points for that, along with not being able to gain the points at each base.

Having selected their items, the kids were released into their first base. On the Saturday I was running the water base. They had to make a pipeline for some rice, retrieve a ping pong ball from the bottom of a pipe with holes in, and throw a rope to someone on a boat. It was quite an entertaining base, resulting in a few kids getting soaked when they dropped the pipe with holes in it! I did end up deducting a few points for kids who thought it would be funny to throw a bottle of rice at me, throw rice at the other team, or splash leader helpers with water..! I also confiscated 2 bags that were left on my base - one of which was at one of the breaks when the whole group ran off manically towards the biscuits and never even returned for their bag!

Each base had a radio, along with the control who were doing scores and there were some entertaining conversations taking place, including a bout of karaoke at one point, and lots of brie puns as we had a large one in the kitchen for us to eat later. We also had a megaphone with a siren feature which we used to simulate an aftershock - when it went off the kids had to crouch and cover their heads and points were deducted for not doing it well enough which meant that there were lots of deductions flying around on the radio. At one point the guy who was doing the scores wasn't near his laptop so he was stood in the middle of the field with his phone trying to write them all down as they came flying in!

When the kids were in their final base, we had to hand out a Golden Ticket to the quietest person in each family. I won't spoil the reason for the Golden Ticket but there is an activity to end the day which involves them. Once this activity had been completed, it was time for scores and a debrief. We announced the overall winner, and the winners in the 3 categories, leadership, teamwork, and strategy. Then it was time to get the kids back to their parents or into the minibusses. Several volunteers escourted the kids back to the school, once they had picked up their bags, and waiting for the parents there while we loaded up the minibusses in the car park. By 4pm, all of the kids had left site and the volunteers had free reign! We reset all the bases ready for the next morning and moved things into tents for the night. We then headed down to the campfire and set up the BBQ! Dinner was burgers, sausages, and halloumi skewers. We then spent the rest of the night sat round the campfire, chatting and drinking. Lots of stories were shared about resedentials that had gone wrong and trips that had gone well with each of our units, as well as the obligatory campfire songs. I taught everyone "There's a Hole in the Bottom of the Sea". When it started getting late, we all retired to our tents again, ready to do it all again tomorrow!

We were once again woken up by a call for breakfast, although this time it came with a personalised talking clock who told us what time it was every 30 seconds, and added observations about the weather and temperature (including the phrase "it is 47 degrees Farenheit for those of you who measure temperature wrong"!)! We all grabbed breakfast and our radios again before heading out to manage traffic. Today, I decided to go up to the road and do something different. I stood in the entrance to the campsite, pointing parents in the right direction to park at the school. One woman claimed she couldn't see the people by the school (who were all wearing high vis jackets!) so I asked over the radio if they could make themselves any more visible and they all started dancing and sent someone to collect the big campsite sign to wave around! This morning a large number of the Guides were coming on a coach so my other task was to coordinate that. Our plan was the same as last years - have the coach stop directly outside the campsite and direct traffic around it while unloading the kids. This worked perfectly this year too - it stopped on the other side of the road and I waved cars past in each direction while they all got off onto the pavement and then several of us stood in the road to stop the traffic while everyone crossed over and walked down onto the campsite. The road isn't too busy but there is enough traffic to need a few people to manage the cars, especially as the campsite entrance is just round a bend. It went very smoothly this year, as it did last year.

On the Sunday, I was on the first aid base. We keep a volunteer on a base for the whole day so that scoring is consistent across all the groups but we all swap around for the second day as you start going a bit crazy doing the same activity over and pver again! On this base, I had set up 5 hazards for them to spot before they came into the tent, and then one of my extra leaders lay down in the middle of the tent to be a casualty. Once the kids had spotted all the hazards, we talked about how to check if a person is responsive and breathing. I then demonstrated the recovery position and let the girls have a go in pairs while we all walked around making sure they all had the right technique. Once they had all had a go, we discussed what you should do if the person was unresponsive and not breathing. I then demonstrated CPR - chest compressions and rescue breaths before letting the girls have a go at that too. I was very surprised at the number who didn't want to give the rescue breaths a go - I stressed that in a real situation, you don't have to do them if you don't feel comfortable and that the chest compressions are more important but that this was a good opportunity to practice the technique in case they did need it at some point. A lot of the girls did eventually have a go once they realised there were points up for grabs too (points on my base were awarded for willingness to get stuck in as much as they were given for actual ability to do the tasks) but they weren't all that happy about it. A lot of the points that I deducted from this base were for abusing the Annie's, including peeling their faces off and bending them backwards in half! I was very surprised though that one of the girls in the last group had actually used her CPR knowledge before and had saved a persons life after they collapsed at a train station. Her parents were paramedics so they had taught her how to do it from a young age but it was still an impressive feat for a teenager. I did have to giggle slightly though whenI was explaining that if you do CPR correctly then you will probably break a few ribs and this girls pipes up from next to me "yeah, I broke 3 when I did it"!

The departure went much the same as Saturday, except we made sure that the coach group came out first and loaded up before we let anyone else walk past it to the school. Other than that, 15 minutes after finishing, all the girls were with parents and no longer our responsibility. All that remained was for us to pack down all the tents and equipment we had used and return it to the various Scout huts and houses that it lives in year round. It only took us just over an hour to pack down several large tents and then we were on the way home.

This was a very enjoyable weekend, as it was last year too, although I wasn't aware it was possible to ache so much the morning after! Even the heel of my right hand was sore from the amount of CPR I was demonstrating! I was utterly exhausted for the week afterwards, but it was absolutely worth it to run an activity for Guides and Scouts which they wouldn't necessarily get to do at any other time. Even though I am moving further away soon, I have pencilled in the provisional date in my calendar and will be returning once more. It is a great place to catch up with friends from university as well as meet new leaders from the area and learn new things. Also, next year is the 10th anniversary of the event so it should be a big one.

(Note: all young people in photos have social media permissions, all photos available on the Be Prepared Facebook page)

Games Night and My Last Meeting | University

24/05/18

This meeting was my last one at my university unit. We were going to take the girls for a walk in the nearby woods as the weather has been so great recently but, unfortunately, the good weather didn't last and rain was forecast for the whole day so we changed our plans and decided to have a games night at the hall instead.

We started the evening with a quick game of Horses and Jockeys as everyone arrived and then played a few rounds of Shoe Bomb once everyone was there.

We then played a game which one of the leaders had found on a Guiding Facebook Group. We separated the girls into 3 teams randomly and gave each team two large-ish pieces of cardboard and one smaller one. The teams lined up at one end of the hall (we put out a line of chairs to mark the start). We then picked one girl from each team to be blindfolded and two girls who were not allowed to speak. We deliberately picked a quiet girl to be blindfolded and the noisy ones to be silent - there was absolute uproar from the noisy ones! The girls then had to get their whole team from one side of the hall to the other without falling in the 'lava' (stepping off their cardboard). If the girl with the blindfold peeped or a silent girl spoke, the whole team had to go back to the start.

To start with, we said that their whole team had to be touching the end wall for them to win, without stepping in the lava but it soon became very clear that the pieces of cardboard were not big enough for all the girls to get on in one go and so we created a 'safe zone' with some more chairs at the other end. Once a girl was in the safe zone, she remained there even if other members of her team had been sent back to the start, and we allowed them to talk and remove the blindfolds there too. It was quite entertaining watching the girls attempting to get to the other end, especially those who were blindfolded. Each team had a different tactic - one team had one of the older girls stand on a piece of cardboard, put the other piece in front of her, lift up the blindfolded girl and put her on the new piece, stand on the new piece herself and then move the previous piece on front of them and continue! I was very impressed as the other two teams were doing variations on "take a small step with your left foot. Put it down. Now the right foot. NO that's too far!" and ended up getting sent back multiple times. Quite a few girls also stood with one foot on each piece of cardboard and skated across to the other side before trying to throw the cardboard back to the start. Sometimes they were successful and other times they then had to run across the lava to rescue the cardboard and then they were sent back to the start too!

Eventually, every girl made it to the safe zone. They then said they wanted to play again but switch up who was blindfolded and silent. We were more than happy for them to do that, so we ended up playing 2 more rounds of this game before we called it quits and got the parachute out instead. We played a couple of quick games of In 'n' Out where alternate girls are trying to keep the ball on the parachute or get it off the parachute. That didn't go as well as planned because the girls all just shook it violently and the ball fired off the parachute and across the room multiple times!

We then decided to play Sharks. The girls absolutely loved this game, and there was a lot of screaming from the girls and laughter from the adults as girls were being pulled under the parachute but friends near them were hanging onto them for dear life. I'm not sure what anyone passing the hall thought we were doing - it sounded like we were murdering the lot of them! There were quite a few shocked faces from the parents as they walked in to pick up their daughters.

We then put the parachute away and got into a circle. The other leaders told the Brownies that tonight was my last night and they gave me a small gift - a National Book Token voucher (very apt for me!). They also apologised that they had not got a card tonight because one of the girls who was tasked with getting all the girls' signatures at school had left it at her friends house! The girls all seemed to be sad to see me go - one even asked "are you leaving forever?". I will be very sad to leave them, some of them I have known for several years as they were Rainbows when I helped out in my second year and had moved up to Brownies by the time I returned after my placement year. I had said that I will keep in touch though. And then, as a final touch, once we had sung Brownie Bells and the girls were leaving, the card appeared - the Mum of the girl who had forgotten it had heard as she arrived that it was at the friends house and had run up the road and back to go and get it for me!

This isn't the end of my Guiding story though, I am heading home from university and returning to my home unit in a few weeks, so stay tuned for that!

More Mathemagician Badge | University

26/04/18

This week we continued with the Mathemagician badge which we started two weeks ago. This week we played Airplanes from Clause 3.

We started the meeting with a game of Wink Murder while the leaders sorted out what we were going to do. It ended up being quite a noisy game, our girls like 'dying' in style!

Once they had finished that, we got some tables out and the girls sat round them, in their sixes. We told them that they would be making paper airplanes and that the best decorated one would win a prize. We gave them a piece of paper and a pencil, as well as $85 of the Brownie Bucks from the activity pack and told them they could start planning what they wanted it to look like while we made up a price list. We looked through the cupboard and pulled out various odds and ends which we wanted to use up and wrote out a price list which we gave to each six.

We then invited the girls up, one six at a time, to do their first big shop. A couple of girls got confused and thought that the piece of paper was for them to make into the plane, not to write on, so they had to go back and do some quick recalculations on what they could afford. Other girls were very meticulous and came up with a list of which colour pencils they wanted! The Leaders ran the shop and made sure the girls were doing any Maths required, such as "if you want 2 stickers, how much is that?" and "you've given me $10 and it cost $6, how much change do you need?". Some of the younger girls were especially proud of the fact that they had done it correctly! We also had one of our older girls who was just buying pipe cleaners for the hell of it, so we decided that prices were going up as stock was low. She came over asking for 3 more and we told her they were now $6 each. She ran off, came back with $20, and when asked how much change she needed said "none". We asked her if she was sure and she thought about it and then said yes. We then saw her talking to the Guide helper and then came back asking for her $2 back! We pointed out that you can't leave a shop and then come back and ask for your change so she want off with a face like thunder!

Time ran away with us a little bit tonight and we suddenly realised that we hadn't done a dry run of the promises we were doing tonight so we stopped the girls and got them in a circle to practice. This unit does quite a complex ceremony, involving the new girl and her sixer skipping round the circle, singing and the unit replying. They then also spin round in front of the mirror as the unit says "twist me and turn me and show me the elf, I looked in the water and there saw" and the new girl replies "myself". As the new girls have never seen this happen, we always have to do a quick practice beforehand.

Once we had done that, I organised the judging of the airplanes. I got each six to show me their plane and tell me a bit about it and then I lined them up and got them to throw them down the hall. We then had a winner for distance and a winner for best decorated. The girls were a bit put out that there weren't actually prizes though!

We had a few minutes spare so we played a quick game of Splat. I had to pull out my cross face at one point because one of our older girls refused to sit down when she was out because she hadn't been paying attention.

Finally, it was time for the promise ceremony. We enrolled 4 new girls, which surprisingly went quicker than expected. We handed out the Mathemagician badges to all the girls and then let them all go home.

This meeting was very good from a leaders point of view, we spent most of the meeting standing and chatting whilst handing out various crafty supplies. The girls also seemed to enjoy the chance to be able to roll play going shopping and choosing what to buy and being able to handle the money. I'm not sure many of the parents let them do that. In hindsight though, our prices were a bit low. We assumed that the girls would want to make more than one plane in their six, so we had set the prices low enough that they would be able to afford a few pieces of paper but they ended up making one per six and so none of them ran out of money at any point.

Mathemagician Badge | University

12/04/18

We decided we would do the Mathemagician Challenge Badge with our girls this term. It will take up two meetings, and this was our first. In this meeting, we decided we would do The 1001 Trick, and Magic Square from Clause 1, Map Colouring from Clause 2, and Groups from Clause 4.

We started with the 1001 trick. Each girl had been asked to bring a calculator with her and we had a few spares. We then sat them down around tables with leaders hovering nearby to help out. One leader called out the instructions and the girls followed them. They all seemed impressed by the trick, although it took two attempts for some girls to get the right answer. We didn't attempt to explain why it works, although we did show the girls that multiplying their 3 digit number by 1001 gave the same number repeated. We have quite a few yonger girls in the unit and I was the only leader who understood it so we decided that it would probably take half the evening to explain it to the girls.

We then did the magic square. Each girl was given one 5x5 grid and one 4x4 grid on a piece of paper. We then got them to work out their 8 numbers on the back before filling in the grid. This one took a lot more adult support, especially when it came to finding the 8 numbers initially. Once they had done this, they managed to fill out their 5x5 grids fairly quickly, although some of the younger ones struggled with some of the additions, despite having a calculator in front of them! They then filled out the 4x4 grid and swapped with someone nearby. One of the leaders then called out the instructions for circling and crossing out numbers in this grid. There was some confusion early on as to what numbers they should cross out. The leaders reading the instructions thought it said cross out any number in the row and the column that is equal to the circled one when in fact you had to cross out all the numbers in the same row and column. Once we had sorted that misunderstanding, the girls quite quickly found the four circled numbers and added them up. Almost all girls got the magic number, although I had to help one girl who didn't and we discovered that the initial square was wrong and that the Guide Helper had managed to say that 2+4=8. Once we sorted that, everything worked fine!

I then ran the map colouring. We had only printed the simpler shapes and we handed out a sheet to each girl and told them the instructions. I had a few girls clarify them to start with and then they all just got on with it quite happily. Most girls understood the task and completed it correctly. I think we should have also had the maps of Africa and South America so we could have said to the girls that it was possible to do in four colours or less and then challenged them to do it on the complex map.

Finally, we played a quick game of groups. It got quite hard to work out how many girls were playing as some of them wanted to finish their maps but occasionally played a round or two and then went back to colouring!

All in all, I think this evening went fairly smoothly. It was quite tiring being the most comfortable Mathematician in the room and having to answer all the girls questions, but also a great way to hopefully show girls that Maths can be fun. I'm looking forwards to doing the Clause 3 shopping game at our next meeting. So far, I would thoroughly recommend doing this badge, although having a leader or two who understand the Maths behind the tricks is a good idea.

Easter Baskets and Guide Visit | University

22/03/18

This meeting, we had a parent come in to do a craft with the girls. I arrived and got all the material she had requested out of the cupboard and then we occupied the girls while she set up. While the girls were arriving, we played a game that they call ‘the chair game’ which they constantly request. Once all the girls had arrived, we also played a quick game of Chinese Whispers to keep the noise down while we had a quick chat as leaders. The games went well, although we did have uproar for one round of Chinese Whispers because a girl had said a rude word! It transpired that the rude word was ‘poo’ and the original message was about ‘guinea pigs’ so I’m not quite sure where that came from!

The girls then bought their chairs over to the tables and the parent ran through the craft. They were making Easter Bunny Baskets so she showed them the templates and all the decorations she had bought for them to use. We had a brief moment of panic as we realised one of the girls had somehow (accidentally or otherwise) cut a chunk of her hair off. The other girls said she had done the same thing at school so we tidied up and made a note to alert her Mum at the end of the meeting. The girls then started making their baskets – I spent most of my time helping one of the girls cut out her template and then holding together flaps as they all stuck them together. They then had free reign with pompoms, pipe cleaners, googly eyes, glue, and pens with which to decorate their baskets. We had some very interesting looking ones and even a chick made out of one of the remaining pompoms!

Once the girls had finished their baskets, we had a drink and biscuit and then sat them in a circle. Two Guides had come to visit to talk to the girls about Guides as part of one of the other Leaders ALQ so we left them to it (with a small amount of prompting) while we tidied up the bombshell that was the tables after the craft! The Guides then ran some games that they play at Guides while us Leaders chatted about plans for next term.

We ended up having to stop the games as we had run out of time. After we had ended the meeting, the girls collected their baskets, picked up a piece of tissue paper and then came up to a Leader who gave them a handful of Mini Eggs as an Easter gift. We spoke to the Mum of the girl who had cut her hair and she confirmed that she had done it at school too and she wasn’t cross with us as none of us were aware at the time but was furious with her daughter. We will be keeping a closer eye on her every time we have scissors out now!

This was a fairly nice and relaxed meeting, especially the second half, and the girls seemed to really enjoy decorating their baskets and definitely enjoyed the eggs at the end! This was our last meeting before Easter and, as we meet every other week, we now have quite a long break before the next meeting, although I am going home and hopefully visiting my old unit next week.

 

I'm back!

Apologies for suddenly going MIA! Life got in the way a bit and then I completely forgot about this blog... Sorry about that.

Since I last posted, I found a Rainbow and Brownie unit to help at while at university, joined the university SSAGO unit, have been on several nights away with SSAGO, completed 3 more octants of my Look Wider, gained my Going Away With License, and have done much more besides.

I plan on attempting to continue this blog again now, the first few posts will be updates on my Look Wider progress, interspersed with Brownie meetings (I stopped helping at Rainbows after my second year) and maybe a few SSAGO events too! My university Brownies meet every two weeks though so the posts won't be as frequent.

Holiday Brownies

An interesting opportunity came my way recently. Our county has been running a Holiday Brownie scheme for a few years now and they are looking for new leaders to help out over the summer this year so I have put my name forwards as a potential leader, depending on what summer job I get over the holidays.

The holiday brownies are a unit for girls who are currently on waiting lists for Brownie units in the area and are unlikely to get a place soon, if ever, due to the long waits in the county (even though we have many units). They meet over the summer for 3 days, non-residential, at our local campsite and do different activities which lead to them making their promise as a Brownie on the final night. This then means that they can operate as 'lone girls' and can attend various events which do not require them to be attached to a specific unit and can achieve badges by themselves. On top of this, the unit is entirely run by student guiders, some of whom have their Brownie ALQ and others of whom want to gain it. It is co-ordinated by a non-student, but all the activities are run by the students, to give them experience in running larger scale events than a single meeting and also to give those of us who can't guide at university a chance to put our good ideas to use! The unit also meets occasionally in other school holidays, such as Christmas and Easter, for an afternoon of craft or a trip to the panto so the girls don't lose interest and feel like they have regular contact. You can read more on their blog.

They have also set up a 'virtual Brown Owl' scheme where students can become a Brown Owl for a few girls and then Skype or phone them once a month or so to find out how they're doing and give them inspiration for badges and other activities. 

The unit has been meeting for a couple of years now and this year I was approached to be part of it as I am now a student. I hope that I can persuade whoever I end up working for over the summer to give me a few days off to help with this (if it's not a weekend) because I think it is a brilliant idea and I would love to help move it forwards.

I will provide updates on this as and when I know more details but hopefully, come summer, you should see some posts about it.

University Update

25/09/14

As regular readers may know, I have just started university and was looking for a unit in the area to help with. I spoke to the District Commissioner recently and unfortunately they don't have any units (of any section, not just Brownies) that meet on a Friday which is the only day I can do due to other clubs and sports I do. She has left me her details so I can get in contact if my circumstances change but, as it stands, I am going to have to go without Brownies for a while. I will still be helping with my 'old' unit whenever I am at home and I am going on the Pack Holiday with them in a few weeks. I've even spent part of Freshers' Week organising the Wide Game that will be part of my Look Wider! Here's a sneak preview but a full post about it will be coming shortly:

I am also going to use this time to focus solely on the rest of my Look Wider qualification, in particular the Independent Living section, when I'm not working obviously!

Posts will probably not be coming weekly for now (unless I get really into my Look Wider) but I will keep you updated about how I'm doing.

Badges and Posters

18/09/14

This meeting we started off by playing a game. We asked one of the oldest girls, who's leaving in a few weeks, what game she would like to play and she chose Fishes. The girls were playing really nicely this evening and we managed to play two games instead of the usual one with lots of arguing. For the first game we chose the first two girls who asked (nicely) to be the sharks but for the second game, to make it fair, we had all the girls who wanted to be sharks line up and then Brown Owl turned her back and picked two numbers. We counted along the line to find the girls. It worked really well because then we didn't end up with 2 friends working as a team which is usually the cause of most of the arguments as the girls think they are ganging up on certain people.

When the girls had finished playing, we got out tables and they started making their badges for pack holiday. I had found all the pictures and printed them out and then we borrowed the District badge machine to turn them into badges. The girls who are coming on pack holiday had to colour in the badge for their six and hand it in so it didn't get lost, and the girls who aren't coming could either colour in a spare or design their own badge that they could take home that night. When they had finished, they could colour in a badge for a leader if they wanted, and there were spare ones, or they could colour in a poster to go on the wall.

While they were doing this, Brown Owl held a parents meeting for any girls who haven't been on pack holiday before so they could ask any questions and find out how we run it. We asked the girls to be quiet, which they seemed to be doing but then we noticed that some of the girls were missing. They were located by the Young Leader in the toilet, making quite a bit of noise so we had to lay down the law and say that everyone has to ask before going as opposed to trusting them to go and come back sensibly (the toilet is only down the corridor).

Other than that, it was quite a relaxed meeting though. I sat at a table with some of the girls and chatted to them about random things while colouring my own badge in. It all ended sadly though as this was my last meeting with them before going off to uni. When Brown Owl told them, the whole unit shouted 'nooo' in unison! I was given a card, signed by all the girls, and a Brownie Me To You bear!

 

I have taken both to uni and they are on display in my room, so I don't forget them (I wouldn't even dream of it!). I am returning for pack holiday in a couple of weeks and I have gone through Join Us and the 'Girlguiding - Movers' Facebook page to try and find myself a unit to help at during term times but, as yet I haven't got in contact with anyone. I am going to try and focus on my Look Wider too, as one of the sections is all about Independent Living! Hopefully I will find a unit soon as I'm not sure I can cope with too much time away from girls...

First meeting, second year

04/09/14

This week was our first meeting back after the Summer. We didn't have any new girls starting so it was a pretty straightforward meeting, even if the girls were all a little hyper as some of them hadn't seen each other for 6 weeks!

We started off playing a game to try and wear off some of their energy. We let them choose and they decided to play Wigwams (instructions here). I was surprised they didn't choose Fishes, as they did most of last term, but they all seemed happy to play this one instead. As this only really needs one Leader to run the game, it gave the rest of us a chance to catch up quickly as we also haven't seen each other in quite a while!

After the game finished, we got out the tables and let them get on with planning their stalls for a fundraiser we are doing in a few weeks. Fairly regularly (every 18 months or so) we have a sale to raise money for a different charity: in the past we've done the RSPCA and the Blue Cross. This year we are raising money for the National Star College after our visitors last term. The girls get into small groups and plan a stall together. We then invite the parents and friends along and the girls run their own stall as well as taking it in turns to go and have a go on all the other stalls. We have had a wide variety of stalls in the past; from the traditional cake sales and raffles, to the less traditional obstacle courses and fortune tellers! We let the girls choose their groups as it gives them a little more independence but we do suggest that girls who've never done a sale before have someone in their group who has, to point out things they might have forgotten about. I spent the evening going between groups, writing down their ideas and helping them resolve disputes in their groups. We have a nice mix of stalls this year; nails and spa, lucky dip, hook-a-duck, fortune telling, cakes, loom bands, among others, so hopefully we will raise a fair amount for the National Star College (usually we make £150-£200). 

We ended the meeting by handing out the Agility badges the girls earned at the penultimate meeting last term and then let them loose on their parents, still no less hyper than when we started the meeting!

I didn't end up doing much of my Look Wider Qualification over the Summer, but I am still noting down things to fill up gaps so I'll hopefully make a start on typing stuff up soon! I am also off to University soon so it may get a bit disjointed for a couple of weeks while I settle in and find myself a new unit to help at, although I will still be returning home occasionally and going to meetings, but I'll keep you updated on that as it unfolds too.