Author Archives: Carissa

An Amazing Transitioning Member

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In BC, we have a unique position for young women who are too old for Rangers, but who have not yet reached the age of majority in this province. These 18 year-olds, who must wait until they are 19 to officially count as leaders, still have an important place in our organization. We call them transitioning members.

Eliesse, a transitioning member from Burnaby Mountain District was featured on the National GirlGuidesCANBlog this week. Click here to see Eliesse’s post about the value of Guiding, giving back, and the amazing opportunities available through the Girl Guide scholarship programs.

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Way to go, Eliesse! Thank you for your continued commitment to Girl Guides.

Eliesse is one of many university students who balance their time between studies and volunteering with Guiding in Burnaby Mountain District. We have many SFU students in our district who choose to volunteer here because it’s convenient to where they go to school. If you’re thinking of joining as a leader but are unsure how it will balance with a university student schedule, send us a message — we’ve had plenty who have made it work. And if you’re not yet 19, talk to us about becoming a transitioning member.

Sparks go “Go, Dog. Go!”

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The girls from the 2nd Burnaby Mountain Sparks had a fun time at Granville Island this weekend taking in a production from the Carousel Theatre for Young People called “Go Dog Go”. This play, especially for kids aged 3-8, was a lot of fun for the Sparks. Having read the classic children’s book at a previous unit meeting, the girls were eager to see the story made live on stage.

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The 60 minute play was an exploration of movement, color, and music. Check out the colourful set pieces behind the girls as they pose here with one of the show’s talented dogs!

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The Carousel Theatre Company is one of Burnaby Mountain’s favourite local arts organizations and over the last few years, girls from several units have taken in great age-appropriate plays for Sparks, Brownies, and Guides (they have group rates available, too). Burnaby Mountain girls love experiencing the arts!

Brownies tackle STEM

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One of the most popular program areas with our girls is STEM — Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math. Getting the chance to explore these fascinating disciplines with hands-on activities in a really fun and girl-centred environment is a real a treat.

This year, the 54th Brownies have been going crazy with STEM. The girls just can’t get enough. Back in January, the unit had a blast at the West Coast Area Science World Sleepover.

They have also spent a bunch of time over a selection of meetings this winter and spring, exploring STEM topics to earn their Provincial STEM challenge crests. Check out these images from some of those meetings.

Some of the activities that they have tried include discovering ways to check whether an egg is raw or hard boiled, making music with water in stemware, studying fizzy water vs regular water under black light and then making their own Sparkling lemonade! Yum!! They have also learned about cyber safety, taken cellphones apart to get a look at the inside and made their own computers. And exploring engineering has given them the chance to build tall towers and to design shelters to keep their favourite stuffed critters safe from the elements.

Believe it or not, they’re not done yet! The 54th Brownies look forward to joining all the rest of the Burnaby Mountain girls at our next big district event: Science Day at SFU! At the end of April, girls of all branches will get a chance to explore science in real science labs with real science students. As you can imagine, these girls in particular are really excited about it!

District Thinking Day: Connecting

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February 27th Burnaby Mountain District came together to celebrate World Thinking Day. Following the lead from the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts (WAGGGS) we took a “Connect” theme and decided to connect as a district while also connecting with the community. The focus of the event was a food bank drive for the Greater Vancouver Food Bank done in the style of a can art construction competition.

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Each unit had been working for the past few months on collecting non-perishable foods, mostly in cans, in preparation for the event. Girls took time to consider their donations and to plan a sculpture that took into consideration a Guiding theme (so we could also connect with worldwide Guiding!). At Saturday’s event, the girls worked together, showing great cooperation, to assemble their sculptures.

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Sparks, Brownies, and Guides had a great time building with the canned goods. Older girls got involved in other ways. One Ranger took the lead coordinating the donation drop off with the food bank and lead a team of dedicated Pathfinders and Rangers in tasks like assembling and filling the boxes, and arranging to have the goods dropped off at the local fire department, which would hold the donations until the Food Bank could arrange pickup on Monday morning.

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Pathfinders and Rangers also helped to run the bake sale, which was a fundraiser for the upcoming district camp, and also the WAGGGS inspired “Connect” picture frame activity, which helped some units complete their WAGGGS Thinking Day 2016 Challenge.

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Congratulations to the 49th Guides who won the sculpture competition with their trefoil-inspired piece. The unit won some funds for unit activities and each girl got a small prize.

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The real winner, of course, was the Greater Vancouver Food Bank which got a donation of more than 800 cans and other items (including a good number of Girl Guide Cookies!). Thank you to everyone who donated, and who helped to pack and move the boxes. We also want to thank the City of Burnaby, which donated cool prize packs for every participant including a pin, pencil, and chocolate treat.

 

Happy Thinking Day!

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Today is World Thinking Day. February 22nd is celebrated as the joint birthdays of Lord and Lady Baden-Powell and has become a day for our 10 million members to think about each other and our history and all the amazing things that we do for girls worldwide.

This year, the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts (WAGGGS) decided we should celebrate Thinking Day with a theme of “Connect” — connect with ourselves, connect with our friends, connect with WAGGGS, and connect with the world. Many of our units are working on the World Thinking Day Challenge this week and will be earning a special crest.

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Three Brownies and a Guider wearing the uniforms to school

To encourage us to connect with our communities, the WAGGGS challenge and West Coast Area have both challenged us to proudly wear our Guiding uniforms out in the community, to school, or to work.

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District Commissioner Bethany in uniform at work

Burnaby Mountain District will be hosting a special World Thinking Day celebration this coming Saturday which will include a massive food bank service project. Units will be engaging in friendly competition, building can art sculptures on a Guiding theme and then donating their collected goods to the local food bank.

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Stay tuned to find out how that event goes — we’re pretty excited about it. Some girls, such as the 2nd Sparks above, have been hard at work practicing the can art sculptures.

Happy World Thinking Day from Burnaby Mountain District!

 

Brownies at the Orchestra

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At the vehement request of the girls, the 54th Burnaby Mountain Brownies did a reprise of one of their favourite outings from last year  — to the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra at the Orpheum theatre in downtown Vancouver. The symphony’s kids koncert series is a great hit with the girls who love everything from the live music, fancy location, instrument fair, and stage theatrics. This time, the show was called “The Mozart Experience” and introduced the girls to some of the greatest classical music of all time.

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The show itself was great fun. Girls especially enjoyed the mimes from the Magic Circle Mime Company performing alongside the music.

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One of the things that makes this experience very special is the chance for girls to try real symphony instruments hands on. The instrument fair allows kids to try out instruments they may have never had the chance to touch in real life. Musicians were on site to give them pointers. It is very exciting to watch them trying new things.

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The leaders were pretty pleased to learn that this was one of the returning girls’ favourite Brownie memories from last year. The girls seem to love getting involved in arts in the community, and as part of our girl-centred programming philosophy, the leaders are thrilled to help them do just that. Perhaps they’ll be back next year as well.

Dance Workshop for Sparks

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The girls in the 1st Burnaby Mountain Sparks recently visited local Art Space Children’s Art Centre to partake in a physical, creative dance workshop put on by one of their talented instructors.

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The interactive workshop included lots of creative expression as well as working on a group routine that they could show to their parents at the end of the session.

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According to the Art Space website, “Children instinctively communicate ideas and express their emotions to others through movement. As children explore the creativity of movement through dance at artspace, they will develop coordination and endurance,
and strengthen their growing bodies.”

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Girls had a great time learning dance skills like coordination, movement, and technique. For some girls, this was their very first formal dance instruction — for others, they have been involved in dance for a long time. Either way, all the girls had a great time dancing with their Sparks friends.

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Thank you to the staff at Art Space for helping us organize this. It was a lot of fun.

Brownies take over Science World

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UPDATE: We’ve added a few more photos to this post as another one of the leaders sent some in and we just had to share. Enjoy! – Feb 9, 2016.

This weekend more than 400 Brownies and their leaders from all around West Coast Area gathered at Science World in Vancouver for an overnight event of fun, friendship, and science! Our 54th Burnaby Mountain Brownies were thrilled to be part of the excitement.

Highlights of the night included an Omnimax movie about Humpback Whales, an engineering demo and experiment time with KEVA planks, science shows, and exploring all the great exhibits with hundreds of other Brownies. trex

Sleeping among the exhibits is one of the coolest parts of this sleepover. Our Brownies got to sleep in a most exciting spot: next to the hollowed out tree and right next to Mr. T-Rex!

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The KEVA blocks were a really cool way to learn about building and engineering in a hands on way. The science world staff had girls help knock down a giant KEVA tower and girls had plenty of time to build their own creations.

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Towers are great to build with friends — a great tower can be built with great teamwork. Alternatively, some girls decided to get creative and build animals with the KEVA blocks, including some who made meerkats!

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The event wasn’t all about science — girls got in some classic Girl Guide fun, including a huge campfire in the omnimax theatre, made extra exciting with the use of glow sticks. Brownies love singing in big groups like this.

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The science exhibits in the galleries are always a lot of fun. Science World is a great place for hands-on learning. Here are some girls trying their hand at working a flying machine.

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Science shows are always a lot of fun. Demonstrations are a great way to learn new things. And its always fun to hang out with friends in the audience.

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Thank you to all the Guiders who worked hard to plan and execute an event of this size. These girls had a blast. Thank you as well to all of the wonderful Science World staff who made the event possible. Large scale sleepovers like this one with hundreds of Guiding friends are some of the memories that we make that last a lifetime.

District Bowling FUNdraiser

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Back in December, girls and their families from Burnaby Mountain District gathered together for a day that put the “fun” into fundraising: a district bowling fundraiser! The district rented Old Orchard Lanes on Kingsway and families signed up for a game of bowling. There was also pizza and snacks available for purchase, plus a silent auction with lots of cool stuff.

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Everybody had a really great time. It was so fun to see so many people come together to engage in fun, physical activity for a great cause. What was the cause, you ask? The district was raising funds for its district camp in June. Specifically, we’re aiming to be able to have the funds for district to cover the cost of buses that will take girls all the way to camp from Stoney Creek School and back again — no  driving out to Horseshoe Bay!

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We’re thrilled to report that the fundraiser was a big success. In addition to all of the fun that was had, we are able to report the following stats:

  • The 3-hour event included a total of 196 bowlers
  • They consumed 30 large pizzas
  • We made a net profit of approximately $700

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Way to go, girls and families! Thank you to the leaders who helped to plan and run the event. And a HUGE thank you to the staff at Old Orchard who went above and beyond in helping us run a successful fundraiser. They were such a pleasure to work with and we highly recommend their bowling lanes as a great place to have some fun.

 

The Perks of Being a Sparks Leader

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There are times that being a grown up can be kind of hard. In my case, I’ve been hobbling around my normal life with increased difficulty due to the big awkward cast on my left leg. It has compounded my regular level of mobility difficulty which is due to nerve damage in my legs and feet and has made me a little bit grumpy. Walking is hard, and it makes me tired and sore after just a short time. Meanwhile, I’m busy with work commitments, Girl Guide volunteering, and finishing my final (and most stressful) semester of a Master’s degree.

20160105_183942So when I was arriving at Sparks last night, part of me was just eager for it to be over so I could go home and relax after a long day. Before long my spirits were lifted as I chatted with a dad who was so proud that his daughter would be doing her very first show and tell that evening – even though she was nervous and not sure she wanted to bring anything from home, at the very last minute she decided to bring a special doll and was excited to show it to her friends. He was thrilled by how much Sparks was helping her to try new things and develop her confidence.

At the show and tell circle, I started things off by showing the girls my cast. They expressed lots of concern and were very interested to hear lots of details about what it was made of and how it was put on. They even asked lots of really great questions – “are you able to wiggle your toes in there?” one asked, with big curious eyes. Yes, as a matter of fact, I can… but you can’t tell by looking at me. Several wanted to know if I was allowed to draw on it, and I told them that I was.

After show and tell finished and we completed another activity, I took out a pile of coloured Sharpies and invited the girls to help me decorate the cast.

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At first there was a little bit of chaos as they swarmed around me – they were so excited to do this! – but we quickly agreed that they could take turns and once someone finished a design they would move aside to let someone else have a turn. Not all 16 Sparks could colour one cast at the same time, after all.

Watching them attentively draw and write messages, I was quickly overcome with emotion. It was so clear how much they all cared. The cast was soon covered in hearts, flowers, and rainbows, along with carefully penned messages like “I love you” and “I hope you feel better.”

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Prior to going to Sparks I was grumpy and tired. I had also spent the last several days embarrassed of the cast, trying to hide it behind baggy pants and feeling awkward when people asked me about it. Today I love the cast and it makes me smile when I see it. I wore a skirt to work today and have been showing it off to my coworkers.

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Sure, being a grown up can be kind of hard – and being a volunteer Sparks leader is a lot of work sometimes too. But this week, I was reminded of why it is so worth it, and why I love what I do. Thank you, 1st Burnaby Mountain Sparks, for sharing your cheer, your caring, and your confidence. I am proud to be your leader, and so proud to wear the cast you decorated for me.