BedsBuzz Welcome from SPRING 2010 Debbie I hope you all celebrated Centenary World Thinking Day in a memorable way. I know lots of people enjoyed One World One Beat. The Anglia event at Stevenage was organised by Emma Wright an adult Leader from , well done to her. Others attended the World Thinking Day Service at Westminster Abbey and lots more had local Division, District and Unit Celebrations. Please send in all your Thinking Day stories and photo's for Bedsbuzz. Best wishes Debbie Docherty Bedfordshire County Commissioner Gill Lake County International Adviser Golden Girls of Guiding

The Golden Girls were awarded their 50 year brooches at our Annual Review and warmly thanked by the County Commissioner for all their commitment and dedication to Girlguiding in the county. Rhona was unable to attend, but requested that her award be presented by Marion Prior on a visit to the Crystal Palace Maze, the place where Guiding A golden team with first started. North Trefoil Guild organised the trip this February. A short celebration was held in the centre 350 years Guiding During my three and a bit years as of the maze and Rhona was presented with her award. the County International adviser I From left to right: Valerie Cousins, Mary Taylor, Marion have organised several International Prior, Wendy Rider, Betty Young and Jeanne Wain. between them! weekends for Guides & senior section Inset picture: Rhona Anderson far right. - the themes so far being 'Around the World', Africa & Russia. The 2010 weekends are taking us 'Down Under'. In 2008 I took a group of 16 girls to a jamboree in Iceland. I am currently looking at possible trips for 2011. I have also put forward several girls for Regional Opportunities and they have gone to places such as India, Australia, Japan, Mexico, Korea and Slovakia to name a few. We have two girls going to the next World Scout Jamboree in Sweden in 2011. Any Guider considering taking a group abroad should contact me and I will be as helpful as I can. Happy travelling - Gill

“Do you think she’s in” Find out what 1st Willington Brownies got up to in London - page 2 Brownies raise £300 for hospice After a talk on the work done at St John's Hospice, , 1st Biggleswade (St Andrew's) Brownie Pack raised money by bag packing in Asda, Biggleswade. They presented Danielle Brandon from Sue Ryder Care, St John's Hospice, with a Cheque for £300.00 watched by Bernard Sullivan, Duty Manager at Asda.

As part of the run up to the Centenary, Brownies took part in the Changing the World Challenge. A challenge in which Girlguiding UK supported 19 charities both in the UK and abroad and each Unit in the Country was encouraged to support one or more of them by raising funds and awareness of their chosen charity.

After the huge County Centenary Launch Party in September attended by over 2500 girls and leaders, Biggleswade and District Girlguiding will be continuing celebrations with events throughout 2010, including a Gang Show, together with Biggleswade Scout Group to be held on 20 March 2010 at Stratton Upper School. For details visit: www.biggleswadegangshow.org.uk Brownies Takeover London Babs Gurney - Brown Owl Big Dig!

To celebrate Girl guiding UK’s Centenary, 1st Station Guides, Brownies and Rainbows set about planting 100 bulbs into a trefoil-shaped flower bed on the grassed area in front of the Hive.

‘The Big Dig’ to make the flower bed and plant the bulbs took place on Sunday, 29 Nov 09. Babcocks had kindly scanned the area to ensure it was safe for the Guides to clear and dig the ground ready for the bulbs to be planted. The day was grey and chilly, but with spades and trowels in hand, the girls soon It’s Halloween and 1st Willington Brownies visit London for had the job done – just in time for the rain to water the bulbs in. our Brownie Centenary takeover London event. Now it’s a waiting game until spring when, hopefully, the We spent a fabulous morning at the ICANDO activity centre flower bed will bloom into colour. The Guides, Brownies and at Guiding headquarters. After lunch we visited Buckingham Rainbows would like to thank the Station Commander for letting Palace and had a leaf fight in Green Park. them plant their bulbs and Babcocks for scanning the area. Our afternoon was spent at the BBC interactive tour. We Sarah Tuckwell had a smashing time, we met, hugged and danced with Assistant Guider, 1st Henlow Station Guides Pudsey bear as you can see in our picture. We were one of the last groups to visit the Blue Peter Garden before it’s Congratulations planned move with CBBebbies to Manchester. The studios, green room and weather studios were next in line for a At the Annual Celebration in visit. A highlight of our day was spent in a small studio Your Snippets! November, awards were made where we practiced presenting Newsround and played the to members who had provided weakest link using cameras and a sound studio. We also outstanding service within A few words for ‘Thinking Day' managed to see a few stars from Strictly Come Dancing Girlguiding Bedfordshire from Kate Briscoe enjoying a well deserved break! Good Service Brooch Karen Murray - Brownie Guider Thinking is remembering... Kate Briscoe 1st Willington Brownies Remembering is discovering ... Sophie Dackcombe Discovering is understanding ... Understanding is learning ... Bedfordshire Brooch Learning is listening ... Joan Barrall Mayors Award to Janet, Sarah, Christina, Laura & Kelly Listening is hearing .. Caroline Dickman - adult Leaders from Luton South Division Jan Fuller Hearing is seeing ... I have just seen the Luton News and would like to say Christine Hayward Seeing is looking ... Congratulations on your Mayors Awards. Well done all of you it is Pat Maddison Looking is feeling... good to see so many Guiding people being recognised for the work Cathie Stewart Feeling is caring ... they do in Guiding. Katherine Sulch Caring is Thinking... Sue Champkins - Assistant County Commissioner Mavis Whiteway Girlguiding Bedfordshire Don’t miss our SUPER SAFARI 100! This Super Safari Sunday will be held on 11th July 2010 at Woburn Safari Park The fun packed day includes • A Super Safari Trail • Play areas • Animal close encounters • • BBQ • Quiz • Gaz and Babs from Heart FM - DISCO! • plus an optional visit to the Abbey for adults Look out for your booking form in the mailshots and on the website. We had 2,700 at our launch party - can we beat this! From Rainbows to Trefoils ThERE’S SomEThIng FoR EvERyonE!

Dunstable Trefoil Guild How pleased we are to be involved in the Centenary celebrations. A good number of us were present at the Launch in September and we enjoyed every minute. We enjoyed watching and reminiscing about previous anniversaries. Our older members were still active adult members when Girlguiding UK celebrated 75 years – seems like just yesterday! Our visit to the British Schools Museum at Hitchin was another trip down Brownies Starburst Butlins memory lane. There are classrooms to illustrate elementary education from 1810 to 1969, lots to see and someone on hand to explain how one Luton South Division had a brilliant time at Starburst teacher coped with 100 pupils in one room! We also had a lesson in the Anglia region. 40 excited Brownies from 12th Luton, Victorian classroom and were tasked with copying text, using nib and ink – 25th Luton, 36th Luton, 3rd and their leaders mine was full of blots! We found sums of pounds, shillings and pence much climbed aboard a coach on a very cold January day. The more difficult than decimal currency. Well worth a visit. journey took us 4 hours when we arrived we were all allocated our accommodation. We’ve had a visit from a hedgehog – accompanied by its carer! Until she moved recently, Angela Smith had been taking in maimed and sickly hedgehogs, Once we had claimed our beds, the weekend really began. nursing them at her own home in . It’s a complete fallacy she We started with Dinner in a self service restaurant, the informed us that they are crawling with fleas and the one she brought with girls really enjoyed being able to choose their own her was certainly flea free. meal, this was followed by a quick change into disco gear and then off to Reds to the Disco. After it had finished British Red Cross – they do first aid don’t they? Well yes, but what a lot else it was time to have a drink of hot chocolate and then bed. besides! Our visitors outlined the various ways that the British Red Cross get involved all over the world and did you know they also specialise in Saturday morning found us enjoying a swimming locating missing people, including runaway children who end up living session, a visit to the cinema, learning party dancing, homeless in the big cities? eating and lots more. The day went by really quickly and ended with a celebration party where we all For a number of years we have been collecting money for charity by filling enjoyed entertainment from the Red Coats, Same up film pots with small coins, choosing a different charity each year. In Difference and renewed our Promises. 2009 we decided on local Guiding and we raised enough to buy a sign to go on the outside wall at Windy Sayles. Look out for it next time you visit. The next day again found us eating, shopping, going to a show and singing. We had a lovely lunch and then We are looking forward to joining in the Centenary events and are currently sadly it was time to board the coaches for the journey working on some of the challenges. No doubt we will also be making tea home. We arrived home tired and full of many happy on occasion! We’d love to have more members, some of us are still actively memories of a good time. guiding – why not come and meet us? Sue Champkins Tricia Litton - Chairman, Trefoil Guild .

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100 Mile Weekend! On Saturday 30th Jan, Limbury District Guiders past and present along with Luton North Division 3rd Brickhill Guides - enjoying the outdoors weekend

g President Margaret Chalmers had Afternoon Tea at included a 7 mile walk where we qualified for the Luton Hoo to commemorate the retirement from Centenary Walking badge because we covered over Guiding of Carol Jordan of 2nd Limbury Brownies. 100 miles between us. A circular walk from Mollivers to

n Sharon Wilson-Limbury District Contact Stagsden and back across the fields included walking through the golf course... think we missed a turning i Wacky Adventure 100 somewhere... Gill Lake

z Here is a screen shot of our photo taken by Remembrance z Chantelle, our Unit Young Leader. By sending it in Parade to adventure 100 we u gained 20 extra points. A slight title error, we’re Goldington Rainbows (not Goldingtom!) but

B hey... what’s a letter between friends. Anyone in the Unit who has been to all meetings and events has already gained 120 points across 9 of the 10 sections. Not bad for five and six year olds! Stella Good - Goldington Rainbow s Where did The Santa Cruise! 2nd Girlguiding Leighton Heath had lots of fun over you get Brownies the festive season. We kicked things off in style by attend the decorating a tree for the Remembrance Christmas Tree Festival in All Saints Church. that hat! day parade. Our theme was the Twelve Days of Christmas and the tree looked stunning decorated with pictures drawn by the girls.

A chance to meet Santa on a cruise along the Grand Union Canal also proved popular with both girls and leaders alike. A lot of Christmas Bring your dad to Rainbows... fun was had by all! 1st Caldecote & District Rainbows held a ‘Bring your Dad We rounded off the festivities by going to the to Rainbows’ night – it was brilliant! All the dads (and theatre to see Jack and the Beanstalk. The some Grandads) had to do everything the Rainbows do. They girls were certainly the best in the audience at sang our ‘welcome’ song, then did a craft – making edible making a noise and stamping their feet, espe - hedgehogs, then played games, sang songs, listened to a cially the Guides on the back row who made story and then sang ‘our song’ at the end. Some dads were 2nd Maulden sure everyone knew we were there (oh yes embarrassed and kept helping their daughters but they they did!) Brownies held a were soon put in their place and it was voted a great success special Friend to by girls and dads! Leighton Heath are looking forward to 2010 Animal event. Sue Parrish & Catherine Spencer -Joint Leaders and all the fun and adventure that it will bring 1st Caldecote & District Rainbows in this exciting centenary year! Beds Buzz - Editor Diane Butler email: [email protected]

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