The members of 2nd Ellesmere Brownies have been collecting donations for their local food bank. The girls have been collecting items for the local food bank in their community as part of their community action, and collected together enough items to fill 35 shoeboxes!
2nd Ellesmere Brownies gathered together 35 shoe boxes full of kindness and love at Christmas.
Each box contained 5 meals and Christmas treats for Oswestry and Borders food bank. One Brownie quotes: “It feels really good though help other people!” ‘
Brownie leader Spark added: “We upheld our Promise. Brownies take action and expressed themselves.”
1st Wellington Brownies have become the first Brownie unit in Shropshire to be awarded the Girl Guiding UKs ‘Doing Our Best Quality Mark’ awarded by Ambition UK a nationally recognised accreditation. This is awarded to recognise the unit and its leaders on providing their Brownies with a safe environment, where the girls are able to take on new challenges, make brilliant friends and discover the world around them thought high quality experiences. Which makes a positive difference to their lives and their communities through a structured programme of activities.
Unit leader and Brown Owl Joanne Martin said ‘I am very proud to be awarded the quality mark. I have been a leader for over 15 years and I was myself a brownie at this unit. 1st Wellington Brownies was first formed in 1961 and although things have changes the ethos of Girl Guiding UK hasn’t. The Unit has seen 100’s of young girls gain such a lot of experience and grow through the programme and experiences brownies is able to offer. It is such a rewarding position and privilege as brown owl to be part of their journey. As part of the portfolio of evidence we had to submit for the award, we carried out a brownie survey to find out what the girls thought the best thing about being a Brownies was and this is what they said ‘We love learning new skills, trying new craft activities, cooking, playing games, going on trips and most of all making new friends’, but we are always sad when the sessions ends and cannot wait until the next week’. In today’s fast-paced technological world, it is great for the girls to be able to ‘get back to basics’ and learn skills that will hopefully set them up for life.
The programme of activities we put together, with the input from the girls is one, which enables the girls to build valuable life skills, self-esteem and confidence through fun and friendship both within the unit and at lager events. It is important for the girls to be involved in the programme planning, as it makes them feels part of the ‘Team’, practices their discussion skills and they enjoy the activities more. At 1st Wellington we offer the girls wide-ranging programme of activities which have recently included; a visit to the Jackfield Tile museum where we learnt how tiles were made, the history of Jackfield and ended the day with making our own tile. We have visitors to the sessions, which has included a model plane pilot to teach us how planes fly and how they are controlled. The girls have earned their First Aid badge learning the important lifesaving skills, which hopefully if they ever needed to use they will feel confident enough to. We recently visited Wellington Fire Station where the girls learnt about the work firefighters do, how to stay safe, the equipment the fire engines carry and they got to spray the fire hoses!
Joanne explains, “This term 1st Wellington brownies will be working towards their Friend to Animal badge, where they will learn about different wild animals, what they eat, where they live, what we can do to protect endangered animals, and how to care for our family pets. This will also include a visit to Pets at Home where the brownies will have the chance to learn about caring for pets, handle different animals and ask questions of the trained staff. We will also have some interactive sessions at brownies over the following couple of weeks, to further their learning”
1st Wellington Brownies meeting on Wednesday evenings (term time) in Wellington. For more information or to arrange a free taster session for your daughter please visit www.girlguiding.org.uk/information-for-parents/register-your-daughter and search for 1st Wellington.
If you are over 18 and would like to volunteer as a unit helper within Girl Guiding UK please visit www.girlguiding.org.uk/get-involved/become-a-volunteer for more information please note a DBS check will be required.
2nd Ellesmere Brownie Millie receives a special fundraising award from County Commissioner Clare Shinton.
Millie raised £1065 for her school by running. This was a task all in her own, running by Ellesmere lake.
A fantastic achievement well worth recognition.
This has inspired the unit to do a ‘Frost bite’ run in January 2018 to raise money for a charity of the Brownies choice.
On Saturday, 1400 members of Girlguiding Shropshire celebrated 100 years of guiding in Shropshire with a carnival fair themed event at Shrewsbury College. Rainbows and Brownies from across the county spent the day at Shrewsbury College taking part in activities such as bhangra dancing, circus skills workshops and a silent disco, as well as adding to a tile mosaic which will be displayed at the Jackfield Tile Museum to mark our centenary. The girls then made hats and shakers and took part in the carnival parade along with guides and senior section members.
The Easter break gave us the perfect opportunity to run our Holiday Brownies scheme once again. This is where girls who are aged 7-9, but aren’t currently in a Brownie unit get the chance to experience the brownie programme. Four girls (including one returning brownie from the last Holiday Brownies) spent several days at Attingham Park undertaking a variety of activities including Easter-themed crafts, den building and treasure hunts across the grounds, as well as learning about the Brownie promise and law.
If you know someone who would like to become a holiday brownie, look out for details of how to sign up for our summer holiday scheme.
Girls from Admaston Brownies recently spent one of their meetings hosting a Mother’s Day event. The girls were able to invite a female family member (mums, Nans, aunts etc) to come to the meeting and be spoilt by their child. The girls had spent time beforehand making handmade cards, a promise table place name for their guests (The place mat had on one side the name of the guest and on the other the girls had written “I promise to…” and filled it in with something they were promising to do), a little gift parcel with a poem, and a small bunch of flowers. The Brownies also gave their guests a slice of cake and served them a hot drink (being very careful with the hot water!).
Lots of very proud ladies at the end of the evening. At the same time, the Brownies completed their Hostess badge, which was presented along that evening with the other badges they’d achieved throughout the course of the term.
Whitchurch held a District Thinking Day event on Sunday 5th March in the Whitchurch Market Hall. The theme was a celebration of the 50th birthday of one of the WAGGGS World Centres at Sangam, India. The event was attended by nearly 100 Rainbows, Brownies, Guides, Rangers, Leaders and helpers from Whitchurch and Prees.
Activities included Bollywood-style dancing, tasting Indian foods and mocktails, henna designs, making elephants and lotus flowers. District Commissioner, Rebecca Harding, visited Sangam in January and gave a short talk about her trip and all learnt the Indian greeting “Nam aste”.
19th Shrewsbury Brownies recently visited a local chocolate factory and were able to decorate their own chocolate eggs.
Meole Brace Brownies had a meeting outside of their usual meeting place this week, with a trip to the local woodland to explore. The girls collected leaves, which they took home in order to identify, and also collected items to make a collage with a Brownies theme.
They finished the evening by playing hide and seek and also some singing practice on the walk back to the car park.