Swimming in the Ocean

Posted on August 11, 2016 by Carissa

On the warmest days of summer nothing sounds as refreshing as cooling down in the chill waters of the pacific ocean. At Camp Olave, girls at our District Camp Flower Power got to get the summer started with exactly this experience.

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The waterfront is one of the best parts of camp, and having on site lifeguards means we get to take advantage of the water by going for a swim. There’s nothing quite like the feeling of waves crashing into your shins as you navigate the rocky beach. All around is nature — interesting rocks, seaweeds and crabs are all over the beach for girls who would prefer to beach comb.

Depending how far out the tide is, the water can be very deep or quite shallow. That’s why all swimmers either wear a PFD or have a swim test administered by life guards. Water shoes are also very important to protect our feet from the rocks. All of this being prepared allows us to have the best possible time on the beach.

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Beach time is one of the girls’ favourite camp activities — some start asking when we get to go swimming before we’ve even unrolled our sleeping bags the first night! They look forward to it all day until its their turn to explore the beach and the water under the warm summer sun.

Eagle Bluffs Summer Hike

Posted on August 3, 2016 by Carissa

Most of our units are quiet in the summer as most of our activities follow the regular school year. However, Guider Marie with the 14th Pathfinders hates to see good weather and free time go wasted! Our 14th Pathfinders usually find time to have at least one great adventure during the summer months.

Last summer, the group tackled the Cypress Mountain Eagle Bluffs Hike, which is a part of the Baden-Powell trail, named for Lord and Lady Baden-Powell, the founders of Boy Scouts and Girl Guides. The 8km hike took them about 5 hours, including a stop for lunch.

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There was a raven scoping out their food at the lookout point which was rather entertaining — everyone loves spotting local wildlife. The Pathfinders also received their badges from the previous guiding year when they broke for lunch at the lookout.

The girls learned a valuable lesson about being prepared: one of them borrowed Guider Marie’s vest, and another her extra pair of hiking socks! It was really cold in the morning hence the bundling up, but it warmed up later in the day.

The Eagle Bluffs Hike was lots of fun and rewarded the group with beautiful views. This summer, the Pathfinders are getting ready to go camping. The unit is heading to Camp McLanlin in a couple of weeks.

Way to go, 14th Pathfinders and Guider Marie, for keeping the Guiding spirit alive all summer long! Guiding does offer other great summer opportunities such as travel and camping at an Area, Provincial, and National level. Guider Marie also recently got back from the National camp, Guiding Mosaic at Sylvan Lake, AB.

Shoot the bow, the mighty mighty bow

Posted on July 29, 2016 by Carissa

“What was your favourite part of camp?”

That’s a question that we like to ask as many girls as possible when we ride the ferry home from Camp Olave. After Burnaby Mountain District Camp Flower Power this June, several of our older girls reported that they loved doing archery.

One of the cool activities at Camp Olave is the archery range, where girls can try out their hand with real bows and arrows. At Camp Flower Power, older girls did archery while Sparks and Brownies were busy with a different activity. Archery is one of those awesome things that not many girls get a chance to try outside of a setting like Girl Guides.

Lots of these girls are going to be eager to come back to Camp Olave to hone their skills with the bow even further — it’s not easy, but practice does help!

Refugee Welcome Cards

Posted on July 7, 2016 by Carissa

At the recent Burnaby Mountain District camp, girls had a great time all weekend with the theme “Camp Flower Power.” Activities were designed, where possible, to fit around the concepts of peace and love. This didn’t only involve tie dye (though it did, of course, also involve tie dye!). The camp’s program coordinators incorporated a service project for all girls at camp to put the idea of peace into practice. Girls of all ages spent some of their time at camp making welcome cards and letters for refugees arriving in Canada.

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Girls took the task very seriously and spent time thinking about how and why refugee families need to be welcomed. The considered what kinds of tips they could give about Canadian culture and how they could help newcomers feel more comfortable. In their messages, girls wrote things such as the following:

Welcome to Canada! I hope you like it here. In Canada we respect everybody.

I hope you feel safe here and make lots of friends. In Canada people are nice to each other and play games like hockey.

Some of my favourite activities are swimming, gymnastics, and being a Brownie. What do you like to do? You should try maple syrup when you’re in Canada.

In Canada it rains a lot. But that’s ok, just get an umbrella. It’s nice here.

This week, two of our adult volunteers visited ISS of BC to deliver the cards and get a tour of one of their welcome centres. Our Guiders were blown away by the important work being done by this organization and were amazed by the courage and strength of the refugees that they were told about. One of the Guiders described the experience as life changing.

The people at ISS of BC were touched by the thoughtful cards and letters and assured us that gestures like this can make a major difference to refugee families when they arrive. Feeling welcome and finding a sense of community can be important factors in how well refugees settle into Canadian culture. The girls of Burnaby Mountain District were given a lovely thank you card, pictured below.

Burnaby Mountain District is proud to have been a part of such an experience and looks forward to finding other ways to spread messages of peace and welcome throughout our communities, especially to people in situations like this who need it the most.

District Camp Flower Power

Posted on June 29, 2016 by Carissa

Burnaby Mountain District was thrilled to wrap up the 2015/2016 Guiding year with a District Camp at beautiful Camp Olave last weekend. Guiders have been busy planning and promoting this camp since February of this year — hosting a camp for 78 girls and 20 adults is a lot of work! But it was worth it. Camp Flower Power was a great success.

One of the great things about District Camp is it encourages girls to make new friends and experience the sisterhood of Guiding. Girls from all Burnaby Mountain units were mixed up on three sites (two for Sparks/Brownies and one for Guides/Pathfinders/Rangers) so they got to meet lots of new girls and leaders.

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Stay tuned for more posts about camp with lots of pictures from different activities — since most units are now done until September, we’ll be posting about camp a few times over the summer.

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Thank you so much to the hard working core staff volunteers who coordinated organization, transportation, accommodation, program activities, and health and safety for this camp. Thank you as well to all the hard working Guiders who worked as site Guiders, patrol Guiders, program leaders, and quartermasters all weekend. Girls had a great time!

Guides Reach High Places

Posted on May 24, 2016 by Carissa

This past weekend the 22nd Burnaby Mountain Guides enjoyed a fun night of rock climbing at the Richmond Olympic Oval. Girls had a great time conquering the 44 foot climbing wall. For many of them, this was a new experience and they all had a great time.

Each girl had the opportunity to take several tries at the wall and some were able to reach rather impressive heights. The climbing wall is appropriate for beginners or for people with more experience, and the staff was very helpful. Lots of fun was had in the spirit of friendship and active living.

This fun activity was a cool way for the girls to take advantage of visiting Richmond. They tied the event in with a sleepover at Guiding’s own Richmond Guide House. At Guide House, the unit met up with the 2nd Burnaby Mountain Sparks who were also having a sleepover there that night — the Sparks slept inside, while the Guides got to practice their tenting in the back yard.

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The Guides had a really fun time sharing some of their camping knowledge with the Sparks and everyone had a nice time sharing a barbecue hot dog supper and campfire (complete with s’mores!) together.

Over all it was a really fun over night event. The girls loved trying the rock climbing, as well as developing leadership skills with the younger girls. Thank you to all of the hard working leaders who made the night possible.

Iron Chef: Best Appetizer, 12th Rangers!

Posted on November 2, 2015 by Carissa

Burnaby Mountain District is very proud of our 12th Rangers for being awarded Best Appetizer at the 2015 West Coast Area Iron Chef competition.

Every year, Pathfinders and Rangers from Burnaby, New Westminster, Vancouver, Richmond, and Ladner gather for an intense competition of outdoor cooking skills. Using the kinds of cooking equipment they would have access to at camp, girls prepared a full meal Iron Chef style at Deas Island regional park in Delta. The annual competition has a Halloween-theme as it always takes place at the end of October.

Their winning dish in the appetizer category, an Egg Salad Skeleton Wrap (pictured above), was judged based on taste, presentation, creativity, and nutrition.

It’s good to know that the 12th Rangers will be well fed when they go to camp this year. Clearly, these girls have great skills. Way to go!

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!

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.

District Safari Camp

Posted on June 28, 2014 by Carissa

June 13-15, girls from all branches gathered at the lovely Camp Olave on the sunshine coast for Burnaby Mountain’s district camp. Approximately 60 girls from 9 different units attended.

Ocean view and some local wildlife on the porch of a residential site at Camp Olave.

What make district camp different from a regular unit camp? Most often when girls go to camp they camp with their unit which means spending the weekend with the girls and leaders they see every week. It is a great way to deepen friendships and bond with people you already know. District camp is special because the girls get to make new friends and get a better sense of the sisterhood of Guiding. At this camp, all of the Sparks and Brownies were mixed together across three different residential camp sites. The Guides, Pathfinders and Rangers all camped together on a platform tent site. This was a new experience for many of the girls, but they rose to the challenge and enjoyed mixing with different girls their own age.

Girls from the lion and tiger patrols showing off their masks.

The theme for this camp was Safari. Girls had a blast going through activities in their animal-themed patrols. They did crafts like make binoculars, animal print change purses, and animal masks.

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Other highlights included camp classics like swimming in the ocean, singing around a campfire, and making s’mores.

HUGE thank yous to all of the leaders who came out to make this district camp a great success. Thanks especially to the core staff who worked throughout the year on promoting, planning, and running the camp — a huge amount of work goes into an event like this one, and girls loved every minute.

Burnaby Mountain District

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Category Archives: Camping