KEYNOTES
HALF YEARLY NEWSLETTER FOR GIRLGUIDING SUFFOLK SEPTEMBER 2017
COUNTY ADDRESSES County President SUFFOLKSUFFOLK SNIPPETSSNIPPETS Judy Jones 7 Grasmere Avenue Felixstowe Suffolk MOOT VI 2017 IP11 9SG 01394 282090 [email protected]
County Commissioner Tricia Hale 11 Aldercro Close Ipswich IP1 6PN 01473 414304 [email protected]
County Treasurer Sheila Tall 9 Western Avenue Felixstowe IP11 9SP Ipswich IP9 2HY 01394 670259 sheila a [email protected]
County Office Gillian Smith 9 Brandeston Close Great Waldingfield Sud ury CO10 0XY 01787 375113 gillian.smith44@ nternet. com
Newsle er Jackie Ho son 10 St Peters Close Henley Ipswich IP6 0RH 01473 831693 jaho [email protected] Moot through Time
1st Chedburgh Brownies 1st Chedburgh Brownies celebrated 50 years inviting old leaders and girls to a reunion. Photos of activities over the decades were on display as well as girls undertaking a show of the history of the unit and displaying uniforms since the unit started and some girls completed their hostess badge. It has been a busy year with a village fete and a pack holiday at Stoke Ash, celebrating Easter in July. Great fun was had as girls made craft and played games and had a big Easter egg hunt. The term ended with our annual water knock out when girls got very wet.
Suffolk meets Norfolk to celebrate Rainbows’ 30 th Birthday Over 630 Rainbows, leaders and parents from all over Suffolk and Norfolk joined together on Sunday 2 nd July at BeWILDer- wood Adventure Park near Norwich to mark 30 years since Rainbows were first formed. The day was a great success (partly due to fantastic weather!) with Rainbows enjoying the delights at the park including a tree walk maze, zip wires, den building, boat rides and lots, lots more. Special activities just for the day were decorating (and eat- ing!) a cupcake, painting a wooden disc, having a group photo taken and getting together with all the Rainbows in the afternoon to sing some guiding songs and of course to sing ‘Happy Birthday’ and cut a magnificent cake. It was a wonderful opportunity for the youngest members of our movement to meet girls from other units and to realise that they are part of a worldwide organ- isation. The Rainbows certainly got to try lots of exciting things, challenge themselves and make lots of new friends. Everyone went away with a special badge and lots of memories of an awesome Birthday party…
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Iceland 2016. A short report, by Margaret Snow In the autumn of 2015 I was lucky enough to be selected as part of the leadership team going to Iceland in August 2016. For me this was my first guiding international trip and I was so pleased to be selected. I started to prepare for the trip in the January sales, as I need a lot of new kit- good walking boots were the most essential, short- ly followed by a waterproof! Unfortunately we had a few days of bad weather, which meant we got a bit soggy, but we still enjoyed ourselves and had an amazing time. We were lucky enough to squeeze in 3 pre meets to get to know each other, but before we knew it, it was time for the off! After landing we were straight off to our first Icelandic adventure, the Blue Lagoon and it was amazing! I think this along with canoeing and the glacier walk were my favourite activities of the trip. In the 10 days we were away we managed to squeeze in so much; a day in Rey- kjavik, including whale watching, horse riding, swimming, a few hikes, relaxing in a natural hot spring, community action and so much more. I think I can safely say we all had an amazing time and we have Girl Guiding to thank. I would recommend a trip to Iceland, as we were at the airport leaving another Guiding group were arriving! I would definitely like to go back one day, and revisit my favourite bits and explore the places we just did- n’t have time for.
MOOT VI
2017
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1st Old Felixstowe Guides
Emma and Kerri from 1st Old Felixstowe Guides who recently completed their BP Award. They chose to celebrate by having a fun evening with a picnic for the unit before the guests joined us later in the evening for the presentation. Emma and Kerri asked their Year 5 teacher to present the awards to them as it was in her class they first met and became friends.
West Ipswich Division Thinking Day Celebrations at Hallowtree 2017
It was Birkfield District turn to organise the above event and over 250 attended. Rainbows, Brownies and Guides all made hats to wear at the campfire. The Rainbows and Brownies took part in a scrabble game,while the Guides braved the weather for ori- enteering around Hallowtree. Each unit gaining points for the Divisions cups. Hot dogs and smores were had by all before heading down to the wood for campfire, where fun was had singing campfire songs and finishing the evening by renewing Guiding Promises. Rainbows and Brownies headed home, Guides and their Leaders stayed for a sleepover and enjoyed a Dra- ma Workshop by the New Wolsey Theatre and Mr Bean Circus Skills all before bedtime. Winners of Challenge Cups were: 1st Birkfield Rainbows, 12 th Brownies, Prizes for best Thinking Day Envelope on the theme of Campfire- Brownies Ruby Riches A big thank you to members of Trefoil and FOGS and Leaders who made the event a success. Vickie Vallow – Birkfield District Commissioner.
More Moot photos
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COUNTY ARCHIVES The Archives are now organised at Stoke Ash. We were allocated a small room (previously the Headmaster’s Office) and a large shelved cupboard (previously the School’s Book Cupboard). We have 2 wardrobes for uniforms and a good work sur- face. The archive boxes containing all paperwork, photographs and ephemera all fit within the 2 rooms and the flags are stored on a large shelf. Before being stored all items are catalogued. In the entrance hall we have a small display cabinet which currently has a display celebrating the Rainbows 30 th birthday. The display will be changing 3 times a year. In addition we now have 3 mannequins who are currently wearing the summer/camp uniform for Leader/Guide/Brownie and again we will be changing the uniforms several times a year. We are currently putting together boxes of items suitable for Guides/Brownies to learn about the History of Guiding and which might also help with the Traditions badge etc. These boxes will contain uniform, handbooks and other, hopefully, interesting items. The boxes are, of course, different for Guides and Brownies. We will be distributing these boxes throughout the County and hopefully there will be one of each within all Divisions in order that they will be available to all Guide and Brownie Units to use within their programmes. We continue to be given a regular supply of items for placing in the Archives which is most pleasing. The most exciting item received recently was a Nurse Cavell Badge. This was an award for “Guides who had demonstrated special pluck in saving life, self sacrifice in work for others, endurance of suffering or calmness in danger” and was only issued between 1920 and 1926. A rare item. We are becoming increasingly aware that Units, Districts , Divisions etc. are commissioning their own commemorative badges for events. We often only come across these by chance and there are no doubt many we do not see. These badges are a vital part of the history of Suffolk Girlguiding and it would be nice to have them in our collection. Please could you consider us and send one for the archives Although happy to receive most items we would prefer not to be offered further Brownie uniforms with the exception of early dresses with top pockets which we are lacking. We are also keen to receive Brownie triangular ties and belts and navy blue berets as worn by early Guides and Rangers. We are always pleased to hear from anyone who might have items for the Archives so do not hesitate to get in touch. Margaret Tinworth O1449 737073 / [email protected]
Britannia District On 25 March 2017 Britannia District hosted a visit by some Norwegian Girl Scouts. Their leader had been in touch with Teresa Riches as they had both met on an international trip to Mexico in 2007 and they were visiting London. The Girls were very keen to meet English Guides and share stories and so the leaders arranged the visit at fairly short notice (about a week)! So some of our guides, brownies and leaders learnt what they do in Norway and how it compares to Guiding in England. We also tried some Norwegian cheese, sweets and were given some badges, which in the tradition of International trips we 'swapped' and gave them badges and cards. We all had a great evening, ending with Fish and chips and a very fast car convoy back to Ipswich station for their return journey to London. We have an offer to visit Norway sometime which our girls were very excited about!
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Camping under the midnight sun - Jessica Shire, 3rd Woodbridge Brownies/Senior Section This year, for me in guiding, has been pretty incredible. I have been fortunate enough to attend two international camps both in the midnight sun in Norway and Iceland. I have also been lucky enough to be invited to the 36th WAGGGS World Guide conference happening in India this September. The first camp was the Norwegian national jamboree that happens every four years. The event called ‘Nord’ was held in Bodo in Northern Norway. I travelled here as a staff member and went the week before the camp started to help build the camp. Although it was hard work, it was brilliant and I learnt a lot about how a campsite is put togeth- er on such a big scale. Norwegian camps are very different to ours as they build everything around them on the campsite by scratch! We did everything from building roads, to making flagpoles, to laying down pipes, to using a GPS to work out how big each area on the campsite needed to be. Initially, there were around 40 of us from around the world on site, but when the camp started there ended up being 9000 of us in total! It was camping on an epic scale and it's fair to say it became rather busy very quickly. It was lovely to be able to meet people for the first week on such a small scale and then see the camp grow the following week. On the last day of the first week we were taken up a mountain for a view of the site and we got to see all of our hard work that we had done from above. We even managed to get featured on national Norwegian TV! For the second week, I was working on the camp news- paper, interviewing people around the site and writing about what the camp was offering. From a Finnish sauna to a zipwire to a mountain hike there was plenty for the scouts and guides to do. I then had the opportunity to work at the programme stall and ran a henna activity for around 100 participants, helped with a leather making workshop and helped run a sweet making activity. The strangest thing about this camp in particular was the fact that it was 24 hour daylight because of how north we were, although we all got used to it eventually at first we didn’t realise quite how late it was as the sun never went down. Having a campfire in the light is certainly an experience for sure! I then came back home for a week to grab some clean clothes and have a good rest before my next international adventure to the 15th World Scout Moot that was held in Iceland. This time I went as a participant and was put in a patrol of ten people from around the world. In my patrol there were people from Lebanon, Italy, Hungary, Austria, Norway and the UK. For the first week, we were put in school accommodation in Reykjavik with our patrol. At the expedition centre, there were roughly about 200 of us. Each patrol was put into a tribe, made up of 4 other patrols. Our tribe got on very well, as we did most activities together and we cooked together and ate together. We became like a little family! One of the loveliest things too was that a lot of the people who I had met at Nord were also at- tending the moot camp too! I am pleased that I went on the Norwegian camp before as it meant that I was already used to the sun not setting so could cope with the lack of darkness! In our tribe there were people from Canada, Australia, France, Sweden and Oman to name a few. Not everyone in our tribe spoke fluent english, so at times communication was a bit difficult, but by using actions, facial expressions and singing universal scouting songs we managed to get the general gist of what was being said! Throughout the week we did a variety of activities, we visit- ed a zoo, hiked up a mountain, tried Icelandic cuisine, (the pancakes are amazing but I can’t say I’m the biggest fan of sheep's head!) learnt how to write our name in Icelandic, visited a nearby island and met the Icelandic search and rescue team. We then finished the week by dancing through the city centre of Reykjavik to thank the people living in the city for letting us stay there. We then travelled to Althingi and spent the next few days with the 5000 other partic- ipants who had been at other expedition centres around Iceland. Here we tried lots of different activities, from trying on a turban in the faith zone, to making Icelandic bread, to trying a variety of different foods on the international day and playing music with a banana with the help from a laptop! Slightly random but again it was so much fun! After the world moot had officially ended, a lot of the UK contingent continued our adventure in Iceland for a few days. We explored the island and visited the blue lagoon, went into an ice cave, walked into a glacier and visited numerous waterfalls and coves. It was such a relaxing end to such an incredible two weeks. I am knackered after a summer filled with adventures, I am so grateful for the op- portunities that I have had and am so thankful for the won- derful people who I have met along the way. For both of the trips we had the most glorious weather, it was sunny pretty much everyday which was crazy consider- ing we thought it would be the oppo- site!
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Ipswich Rainbows celebrate their birthday at Jimmy’s Farm
Archives Summer Uniform Display At Stoke Ash
SUNSET AT CAMP
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Colneis Division hosted an event to Support The Jo Cox Foundation Great Get Together Weekend in June. We opened our headquarters building, promoting the uses the building has that the public can use, parties family gatherings classes, sleepovers , and meetings.The sun shone and over a hundred people came and enjoyed our garden, tea, coffee and cream teas.. A guiding information area was available and notable guests were Therese Coffey MP, Nick Barber Felixstowe Mayor and several other councillors Donations on the day were split between our HQ building and Jo Cox Foundation Judith Potter Division Commissioner
Buckingham Palace Visit for one of our Guiders
My trip to Buckingham Pal- ace for the Queens Garden Party on 16 th May 2017. Representing Girlguiding Suffolk. Accompanied by my husband Nigel and my daughter Ellie. A fantastic day. The sun shone, the gar- dens were beautiful and the tea was wonderful. Thank you Girlguiding Suffolk.
Julie Cook
MOOT 2nd Beccles Guides
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29th and 32nd Ipswich Brownies had a fantastic day at Hautbois doing water safety badge including kayaking, raft building and even ending with jumping in the river.
MORE MOOT PHOTOS - 2ND BECCLES GUIDES
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1st Cotton and Bacton Brownies and Guides On July 12th 2017 1st Cotton and Bacton Brownies and Guides had an evening of dodgems and campfire to celebrate the dedi- cation leader Alison Weston has shown over the past 25 years to Guiding in Haughley District as she steps back from weekly meetings. The dodgems were provided courtesy of Jeffries of Bacton on their Jubilee dodgems. Brownies and their leaders got a turn first with the Guides having their turn after the campfire. Thoughout the evening current leaders from around the District, ambassadors, past leaders and Young leaders turned up to sur- prise Alison and we all enjoyed singing and marshmallow toasting around the campfire before presenting Alison with some gifts and cards. A fantastic experience for all involved and a great way to end summer term.
Girlguiding Martlesham District & Friends Brownies, Guides, Rangers & their Leaders from Martlesham have spent the last year producing a video to accompany Girl- guiding Suffolk’s new song “The Way Old Friends Do”. There is also a challenge badge to accompany it. We hope you enjoy singing it as much as we enjoyed making it. 1st Brightwell Guides & 1 st Martlesham Rangers ran various activities at the MH100 event in July to celebrate 100 years since the airfield on Martlesham Heath was opened & 5 Rangers renewed their promises earlier in the Summer.
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Would you like to visit the oldest World Centre- Our Chalet in Switzerland? Girlguiding Suffolk have booked to take a group of Guides Senior Se on e bers to stay at Our Chalet and par ipate in the Swiss Challenge progra e. When: 26 th July -3rd August 2018 Cost: £1 00 ( axi u ) Mini u age: You should be at least s hool year 9 in 2017/18 Maxi u age: You should be under 18 at the e of the trip or an appli a on for to oin the trip onta t Cheryl (County nterna onal Advisor) at heryl_daldry@hot ail. o Or interna onal@girlguidingsuffolk.org.uk
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Suffolk Girlguiding Diary of Events
2017 September 30th Mere Day Thorpeness October 7th Ipswich Gang Show Auditions [email protected] October 18th Christmas on a Plate Kesgrave area October 20th - 22nd BP Adventure International theme October 22nd Badge Day Stoke Ash November 25th Adult Leadership Qualification Stoke Ash Safe Space, First Aid, Food Hygiene and more
2018 January 20th All Day County Exec Stoke Ash January 27th - 28th BP Adventure Provisional date April 22nd County All Section Fun Day Easton Farm Park May 5th - 6th BP Adventure Provisional date July 8th International Opportunities Event for girls July 26th - August 3rd County Trip to “Our Chalet” Switzerland November 3rd - 4th BP Adventure Provisional date
THE G RLGU D NG SU OLK KEYNOTES is published half yearly for Guiders, Advisors, Me bers and supporters of Girlguiding in Suffolk. Editor:- Ja kie Hobson, 10 St Peters Close, Henley, pswi h, P6 0RH E- ail: ahobson831@g ail. o Please send ontribu ons for the next edi on by Mar h 12th 2018.
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