Training for New Guiders

Posted on August 29, 2019 by Carissa

The 2019-2020 Guiding year is about to get started and girls and Guiders across Burnaby Mountain District are SO excited! Have you ever thought of joining as an adult member volunteer? Several Burnaby Mountain units are still looking for enthusiastic women to join their leadership teams.

While it’s never too late to join, there are certainly some advantages to getting started at the beginning of the year. It can be a bit of a learning curve, but Burnaby Mountain is full of Guiders happy to mentor and work with you. Plus, Girl Guides of Canada is launching a great new training stream this year for new volunteers.

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If you think you might be interested, get in touch today! See http://www.girlguides.ca to apply, or message us if you have any questions.

Recognizing Our Awesome Volunteers

Posted on April 16, 2019 by Carissa

Recently, West Coast Area Girl Guides hosted its annual awards dinner, which is wonderful night for Guiders from across the area to get together to celebrate everything that we do to support girls in our various roles. Several of our adult members came out to celebrate together.

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At this year’s event we saw awards granted to Guiders Helen, Sandra, and Gerry — thank you ladies, for all that you do! From helping with camping equipment, to coordinating our cookie deliveries, to managing our volunteer human resources, these ladies are all fundamental parts of our district’s success.

Did you know that we are now planning for next Guiding year (2019-2020), and we have many vacant positions in our rosters? If you are interested in volunteering to join this amazing team, please reach out and let us know. Guiding is all about running great programs for girls, but it is also a way for like-minded adults to find new friends, have lots of fun, and make a difference in the community.

Guider Retreat

Posted on November 14, 2018 by Carissa

The adult volunteers of Burnaby Mountain District recently gathered for a Guider Retreat at Camp Capilano in North Vancouver. 21 adults participated! The overnight event had three goals:

Provide relevant training
Team building
FUN

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In regards to the first goal, our Guiders got training about the new Girls First program, camp equipment, effective communication strategies with girls, bullying prevention, and Guiding traditions.

Guiders also got to choose between two out trips — a tour of the new BC Guide House building and visit to Lonsdale Quay, or a geocaching hike in Capilano Park.

A highlight of the event was a team building visit from Dance Downtown, with a facilitator that took the group through a teamwork intro and a Bollywood dance lesson. It was so much fun! There was a lot of laughter and bonding.

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All in all, the three goals were definitely met! Our Guiders now feel more prepared to engage with our new program and have lots of other skills they can work with. Perhaps even more importantly, we’re a better team than ever before.

Want to join the fun? Get in touch with us any time. We’re always looking for dedicated volunteers to join us.

Leaders Planning Fun Things

Posted on May 12, 2018 by Carissa

At last week’s district meeting the adult members of Burnaby Mountain district discussed exciting upcoming events including the Great Salmon Send-Off (happening right now at Stoney Creek School!), district camp, and awesome things happening in the various units.

District camp quartermaster Jenn demonstrated how to make cinnamon sugar witches hats which are going to be a tasty treat at the Harry Potter themed district camp next month. They were delicious! These ladies are all very excited about the creations.

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This is a great team to join! Several of our units are looking for new Guiders to join in the fall. Guiders have lots of fun, give back to the community, make new friendships, and learn lots of great transferable skills.

Did you know Burnaby Mountain District is opening a new Guide unit and a new Pathfinder unit for next year? Phase 2 of registration which includes all current girls (including those changing units or branches) opens on Monday. Don’t delay — some of our units may fill during this phase!

Contact us for more information about how to sign up as a volunteer adult or about how to register your girl into our exciting programs.

Join us!

Posted on September 2, 2016 by Carissa

Girl Guides is always looking for dedicated and enthusiastic volunteers to join out team. Burnaby Mountain District has several openings for new leaders as well as advisor positions on our district council available.

Being a volunteer with Girl Guides means joining a sisterhood more than 10 million strong around the world. Guiding provides great experience in working with children, communication skills, organization, event planning, and more. There are even training opportunities to help you improve those skills, as well as chances for training in things like first aid.

Oh, and did I mention it’s a whole lot of fun? Check out these photos of our adult volunteers from events earlier in 2016. Who wouldn’t want to join this team???

Contact us today to find out about how you can get involved. It is rewarding to work with the girls, and a great place to make new friends. No experience necessary. Join with your daughter — or without: Guiders don’t have to be moms. All you need to be a woman 19+, to pass our screening procedures, and be enthusiastic about girl greatness!

Guiding Reunion 2016

Posted on June 10, 2016 by Carissa

In May, Burnaby Mountain District hosted a reunion event for past and current members of Guiding. The planning committee worked hard to get word out to past members who were involved either as girls or as adults who were now over 19 whether they were involved here in Burnaby Mountain or elsewhere but now lived in the community. The event was intended as a fun evening to thank our current members and to share memories about what Guiding has meant to us throughout the years.

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At the event, women enjoyed a wine and cheese reception, an interactive history timeline, nostalgia hat crafts, a 50/50 draw, and a campfire. The District Commissioner gave an address sharing information she had learned about the history of Guiding in Burnaby from the Burnaby City Archives.

Guests especially enjoyed looking at old photos of themselves and friends and sharing memories of camping trips, enrollment ceremonies, outdoor adventures, and friendship. Below is a photo of the current District Commissioner celebrating her birthday during a Girl Guide trip to Victoria in 1999!

Bethany 1999

Another highlight was the campfire, complete with a s’more treat. Past members remarked at how surprised they were to remember the words to classic Guiding songs like “Land of the Silver Birch,” “Princess Pat,” and “I Don’t Wanna Go to Girl Guide Camp!”

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Thank you to everyone who came out to spend the evening with us. It is always nice, sometimes, for Guiders and Guiding friends to get together as adults to reflect on the spirit of Guiding and to remember fun times passed. Burnaby Mountain has lots of fun coming up ahead as well, and we made sure to remind all the past members that we’d love to have them back as leaders any time!

National Volunteer Week 2016

Posted on April 12, 2016 by Carissa

Happy national volunteer week to all of our amazing volunteers! Guiding wouldn’t be possible without the hard work and dedication of all of our leaders, council members, and commissioners. We’d love to take this opportunity to share the following thanks from Girl Guides of Canada:

volunteer week 2016

As well, we would like to congratulate some of our amazing volunteers who were recognized with merit awards for their hard work in our organization. Burnaby Mountain had three Guiders awarded with merit awards at last week’s West Coast Area Awards dinner. Two were able to attend the event — congrats, Christine and Gerry!

The third Guider has not yet received her award, so we don’t want to spoil the surprise right now. But well done, everyone!

Looking ahead to next Guiding year, Burnaby Mountain is sad to be bidding some of our leaders farewell as they move on to other things. This means we have a shortage of leaders in some of our units. If we are unable to recruit more, some units are at risk of being closed. This would be a great time to consider volunteering! Guiding is a great place to work with amazing girls and women to promote girl greatness and empowerment in a fun and supportive environment. Guiding offers great opportunities to our adult members including training, scholarships, travel, and more. For more information, contact us using the comments or by email at the “contact us” tab above.

To all of the amazing volunteers who power our district, Burnaby Mountain District says a big THANK YOU!

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!

District Planning and Cutthroat Kitchen

Posted on August 24, 2014 by Carissa

With September, the start of the Guiding year, just around the corner, Guiders from Burnaby Mountain district gathered yesterday for their annual planning day. The morning featured training sessions to help new Guiders understand how to run the Guide program and to give tips and tricks for running a unit including planning, communication, and conflict management. In the afternoon there was a planning session where topics such as cookies, fundraising, and district events were discussed — there’s a lot of fun stuff in the works for this year!

Of course we wouldn’t really be Girl Guides if we didn’t incorporate an element of real FUN into the day. Our mid-day activity was a team-building exercise based on the Food Network TV show Cutthroat Kitchen. Guiders were put into teams to cook a main dish, side dish, and dessert in just 45 minutes, with crazy challenges thrown in for extra chaos.

Cooking started out with a frenzied collecting of ingredients from the pantry. Teams quickly put together their plans and got to work. Throughout the event, however, the host (District Commissioner Gerry) would announce challenges that teams would bid on to inflict on another team to try to sabotage them. Challenges including having to pause to sing campfire songs, having to use a teeny tiny frying pan to cook your food, having to wear one oven mitt for the duration of the game, and having to be handcuffed to another teammate. SAM_2994 Above is one player cooking her meat in a tiny pan, and below are two players both handcuffed and oven mitted, attempting to plate their meal. SAM_2995 The event was judged by District co-treasurers Nikki and Chris, along with Area Commissioner Donna. The meals, shown plated below, showed great creativity and were remarkably tasty given the limited amount of time, single shared kitchen, and the challenges inflicted.

More than enough food was made for everyone to enjoy lunch out of their creations. Dishes included prawn stir fry, sloppy joes, chow mien noodles, spinach pasta salad, and peach tarts. Leaders had a great time being silly and competing against each other. In the end, leaders from three units split of the prize of $100 for their unit’s bank accounts.

Provincial Book of Honour: Nancy McAskill

Posted on January 14, 2014 by Carissa

Girl Guides values the contributions of all of its members, but some women stand out as having gone above and beyond. Long time member Nancy McAskill was one such inspiration. Having held positions ranging from Unit Guider, to District Treasurer, Camping Advisor, and Commissioner, her vivacious personality and dedication to Guiding touched countless girls and women in our District.

Sadly, Nancy passed away at the end of 2012. Our District was set on recognizing Nancy’s involvement in our organization so an awards team formed to get a posthumous honour. It is with great enthusiasm as well as mournful remembrance that we got Nancy installed in the Girl Guides of British Columbia Book of Honour.

A member in the Book of Honour is one who demonstrated both a considerable commitment to fulfilling the organization’s Vision, Mission and Values and her acceptance of them as outlined in Guiding Essentials. The exemplification of and promotion of the spirit of Guiding through keeping the Promise and Law should have been evident in her Guiding endeavours. The Book of Honour is on display at Provincial Guide House and a different page is shown each day to recognize our Province’s most outstanding members.

A copy of the page from the book was presented to Nancy’s husband, Neil, at a ceremony at one of our District meetings in early 2014. Nancy’s devotion to Guiding and her contribution to our District will not be forgotten.

Burnaby Mountain District

Register today at www.girlguides.ca!

Category Archives: Guider Events