Seeking New Leaders

Posted on September 23, 2015 by Carissa

This week, volunteers from Burnaby Mountain District represented BC Girl Guides at a Volunteer Fair at Simon Fraser University. Here are the district commissioner and PR advisor posing at the booth with SFU mascot McFogg the Dog.

Many units in Burnaby Mountain are currently full and some have wait lists. In some cases, more girls could be admitted if another leader were to join the team. SFU is a great place for us to find enthusiastic women who are excellent role models for our girls. Lots of people were interested, and of course SFU students come from all over the lower mainland. We found potential leaders for groups in Burnaby, Vancouver, Surrey, Richmond, and Langley!

We are still looking for more volunteers in our District. We are also looking for an assistant treasurer who has experience working with Sage accounting software. If you, or someone you know, wants to consider volunteering with our organization, feel free to drop us a line!

Guiders Planning for a New Exciting Year!

Posted on August 31, 2015 by Carissa

Guiders from Burnaby Mountain District recently had “cookies on the mind” at their district planning session. In this team building game, our adult volunteers raced around a hallway corridor balancing a classic Girl Guide Cookie on their forehead. The winner of the race won a unit’s portion of profit from a case of Girl Guide Cookies for her unit!

As always, the ladies had a good time coming up with fun activities for the upcoming year. The nearest events include a uniform exchange day, another district cookie blitz day, and a reprisal of last year’s successful bowling day. All three of these are fundraisers for bigger events to be announced later in the Guiding year.

We’re always looking for enthusiastic volunteers to work with our units. Come out to meet representatives from Burnaby Mountain at Lougheed Town Centre this coming Saturday and Sunday. We’ll answer any questions about getting involved as either a girl or an adult in our organization!

Sparks Dr. Seuss Themed Camp

Posted on June 30, 2015 by Carissa

It wouldn’t be Girl Guides without camping!

Most of the units in Burnaby Mountain went camping one way or another in the month of June. Unfortunately (or fortunately?) most of them were too busy having fun to spend much time snapping pictures. We were lucky enough to get some shots of the fun-loving 1st Sparks from their awesome Dr. Seuss themed camp at Camp Olave.

The Sparks had a great time reading stories, doing crafts, eating Seuss-themed food (green eggs and ham, anyone?), and doing all the other awesome camp activities like swimming, nature walks, and s’mores. In one activity, girls learned the foundations of building a good campfire by using edible materials — this girl was so proud of hers we needed to take a picture of it before she could eat the pieces!

The girls hammed up for the camera at their Dr. Seuss seaside photo booth with fun props and Who Hair Dos.

Some of their favourite characters were Thing 1 and Thing 2 as well as The Lorax.

They also had a great time singing their campfire songs and making (and eating!) their s’mores.

At the end of the day, camp is mostly about the food, right?

For many of these Sparks it was their first time doing a two night camp. The girls were very resilient and dealt with some challenges including late ferries that added a little bit of stress to the beginning of camp. But none of that slowed them down. The girls had a great time at Camp Olave and look forward to going back next year!

Badges, Badges, Badges!

Posted on June 9, 2015 by Carissa

Girl Guides LOVE earning badges. Recently the girls in the 22nd Guides had a badge testing night where they got to show off their hard work on interest badges as part of Girl Guides of Canada programming. Interest badges are a great way for girls to explore their interests, try new things, learn new skills, and have fun.

At badge testing, girls are responsible for showing leaders what they have done to satisfy the requirements of the badges. Here are some of the girls during their testing.

These two girls demonstrated different kinds of artistic skills for the Art Production badge.

These two baked up some delicous snacks for the Tasty Treats badge.

This girl earned her Cycling badge.

And this girl presented her Event Planning badge.

The unit would like to thank District Commissioner Gerry for coming to the meeting to help with badge testing. All the girls had a great time earning their badges and presenting their work. Another great example of the cool personal development opportunties in Girl Guides of Canada!

District Space Centre Sleepover: Guiding Reaches for the Stars!

Posted on May 21, 2015 by Carissa

Last weekend Burnaby Mountain District took over the HR MacMillan Space Centre for an amazing sleepover! More than 100 participants got to learn all about space including astronauts, the universe, rockets, and more.

Girls were divided into groups to take part in different activities. One of the stations took place in the observatory where girls got to learn about the giant telescope and how astronomers study space. SC 2

Everyone got a chance to explore the cosmic courtyard, which featured lots of hands-on activities. Girls got to touch a moon rock, feel different spacecraft materials, design rovers out of lego, and consider the possibility of alien life forms.

Another station was a presentation by Space Centre staff about what it’s like to be an astronaut. Girls got answers to all kinds of interesting questions: How to astronauts wash their hair? What do they eat? Where do they sleep? How do they go to the bathroom?

Finally, everyone got to see a show in the planetarium theatre before bed, showing us just how small we really are in the universe. They learned about planets, stars, and galaxies, and got to spot constellations and find out why Pluto is no longer classed as a planet.

It was a really successful event and everybody had a great time. Space Centre staff were impressed with how well behaved the girls were and how organized the leaders were. They were also impressed that we knew more songs about space than just “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star!” SC 7

In the morning, girls got to launch the bottle rockets that they constructed the night before. Everyone was impressed with how high the rockets actually flew.

This is another great example of how Guiding includes STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) into programming for girls of all ages. We learned a tonne, and had a great time doing it. A HUGE thank you goes out to the incredible Space Centre staff for leading such an exciting program as well as to all the Guiders who volunteered their time to make the night a success.

What happens at a typical Guide meeting?

Posted on May 19, 2015 by Carissa

Most often we here at Burnaby Mountain District like to post about the really super awesome outings, events, and meetings that our girls are getting up to (stay tuned for a post in the next few days about the amazing district sleepover at the planetarium!). But sometimes it’s good to post about a regular weekly meeting. You might be wondering what does a Guide group do at an average meeting?

The girls at the 22nd Guides recently decided to answer that question for local Brownies who will be advancing to Guides in the coming year. They invited some second year Brownies to see what Guides is typically like.

The answer, of course, is that there is no “typical” night at Guides! These girls like to do all kinds of things from arts and crafts, to cooking, to community service, to planning for their upcoming events, to playing games, and more.

As a special treat, the Guides treated their Brownie friends to an activity of cupcake decorating, showing off how they have honed their decorating (and eating) skills.

And it wouldn’t be Guides without the fun and friendship of hanging out with your Guiding buddies. This is a unit that knows how to giggle!

Sparks Do van Gogh

Posted on May 5, 2015 by Carissa

Last night the girls in the 1st Burnaby Mountain Sparks went to a 4 Cats art studio to participate in a painting workshop to recreate Vincent van Gogh’s famous masterpiece, Sunflowers.

A wonderful art facilitator gave tips on drawing and painting the vase full of flowers. Girls were encouraged to think about warm colours and cool colours and to group those together to emphasize mood.

The girls had a great time and produced some really awesome art. By the end of the night they had each made their very own acrylic painting with modeling paste on an 11″× 14″ pre-stretched canvas. The 1st Sparks love 4 Cats!

Rangers at Camp Olave

Posted on April 16, 2015 by Carissa

Last weekend the girls of the 12th Burnaby Mountain Rangers went to camp. It was not an especially adventurous camp — they wanted a weekend to chill out by the beach, hang out with their friends, and relax. Sounds pretty nice, doesn’t it?

The lucked out with some beautiful sunshine coast weather. Although they spent a lot of time outside, they also enjoyed lodging in the adorable Gingerbread cottage.

This unit has girls with a wide variety of Guiding experience — some of have been members almost their entire lives, whereas others have joined as recently as this year. It really doesn’t matter how new or old their friendships are, this small unit had a wonderful time camping together.

Several of these girls are also junior leaders in our Sparks and Brownies units and show their dedication to Guiding year round by working hard in those roles. They certainly deserved the weekend off to relax.

Here’s to plenty more opportunities for Rangers to relax and make great Guiding memories.

Classic Cookie Blitz Day

Posted on April 12, 2015 by Carissa

The Spring cookie campaign is well under way in Burnaby Mountain. Many units have already sold all their cookies, and even District is running low on its supply!

Yesterday girls from most units in the district came out to sell cookie in a true blitz style throughout the district. It would have been hard to be out in public yesterday in Burnaby Mountain District and not have come across our girls. Units were selling from 10:00-4:00 at Save-On-Foods North Road, Wal-Mart Lougheed Mall, Independent Foods North Road, Sears Outlet on Lougheed, Dollar Tree at Cameron, and Nestor’s Market at SFU.

Cookies sold really well across the campaign and it was great to have our girls out and about being seen. The weather mostly cooperated though it was chilly and blustery for part of the day.

Thank you to all the girls who came to sell, to the leaders who organized and supervised them, and to the local businesses who supported Girl Guides by letting us sell outside your stores.

Sparks with Critters

Posted on March 27, 2015 by Carissa

Never a group to shy away from an adventure, the 1st Sparks recently had a special guest come to a meeting. And he brought… friends.

Mike, of Mike’s Critters, was a great host for the girls who learned a tremendous amount about different kinds of animals including what they eat, how they protect themselves, why they look the way they do, and lots of other really cool trivia.

Mike brought a rabbit, a hedgehog, a red-eyed tree frog, a parrot, a leopard gecko, a chinchilla, a chameleon, and a mealy corn snake. The girls got to look at all of the animals up close and were able to touch most of them.

Did you know the Chinchilla is the softest animal in the whole wide world?

Some special volunteers even got to take turns holding some of the animals. The girls were so brave and were even excited to get to hold the snake!

The girls were so excited to have Mike and his critters at their meeting. It was educational, engaging, and totally hands-on. What a great opportunity. This unit and its leaders give Mike a rave review and totally suggest you check out his website and condsider booking him for your upcoming events.

Burnaby Mountain District

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Author Archives: Carissa