Burnaby Village Museum Heritage Christmas Outing

Posted on January 6, 2015 by Carissa

Several units from Burnaby Mountain District visited the Burnaby Village Museum for its annual Heritage Christmas display at the end of 2014. The museum is known for putting on a great evening with live entertainment, lots of educational material from the 1920’s, and, of course, the carousel.

There was a really fun scavenger hunt themed as the 12 days of Christmas. The clues were the words from the song and the things that “my true love gave to me” were scattered throughout in creative ways. The “four calling birds” for example, was four crows making phone calls in a store window! Shown below are some of the “nine ladies dancing”.

There were lots of lights and amazing decorations. The eco-sculptures were dressed up too. There was lots to learn about how Christmas was celebrated almost 100 years ago.

One of the highlights of course was the ride on the beautiful traditional carousel. The girls loved riding with their friends. The horses move faster than you might think!

We hope you enjoy these photos of the 1st Sparks and the 54th Brownies from when they went together one night. Other units visited the museum on different nights as well.

Sleepover at Canada Games Pool

Posted on November 23, 2014 by Carissa

Recently girls from the 24th Brownies and Highlands Guiding Unit went to Canada Games Pool in New Westminster for a fun and exciting sleepover.The evening involved time in the pool and then the sleepover portion taking place in the community centre.

The pool has lots of great things to play with in the water and girls had a lovely time swimming with their friends. A great accomplishment for many of them was being able to pass their swim tests under the supervision of Lifeguards at the pool — way to go girls!

The diving board was a pretty big hit. Girls soared from impressive heights into the deep waters below. Check out this girl catching some air!

As always, the most important thing was the girls had a great time. The units want to thank Canada Games Pool for helping them put on a successful event.

Gulf of Georgia Cannery/Richmond Guide House Sleepover

Posted on October 5, 2014 by Carissa

At the end of September the girls and leaders of the 54th Burnaby Mountain Brownies had an incredible overnight experience combining a tour of the Gulf of Georgia Cannery and a sleepover at Richmond Guide House.

Some of the leaders outside the Cannery as the girls gathered for the event

Everyone met at the cannery, which is a Parks’ Canada National Historic site. Two enthusiastic tour guides took everyone around the facility, showing how salmon was fished and canned and west coast.

The start of the tour, near a display about old time fishing techniques

It was fascinating to learn about what the conditions were like for the people working in the cannery, to see the machines, and understand some context about the west coast fishing industries.

The girls were a rapt and well behaved audience

The girls especially enjoyed some hands-on activities designed to give them an appreciation for the weight of the fish, how they moved fish around the cannery, and even learning how much a Brownie’s weight of salmon would have been worth (answer: about $20!)

One Brownie using a tool to move rubber fish from one bin to another. It was heavy, hard work!

After the tour the girls had a fish and chips dinner in the cannery’s ice house. A huge thank you to friend of Guiding, Dave’s Fish and Chips, who prepared our delicious meal for wonderful value. Everyone then rode the bus back to the Richmond Guide House where they settled in to the sleepover portion of the evening.

A koi fish wind sock — fish theme, get it?

The girls worked together to cook some stone soup for mug-up, made a craft of koi fish wind socks, sang campfire songs, and went to bed (at a very reasonable time, the leaders are pleased to add!).

Brownie Greek Mythology Camp

Posted on May 15, 2014 by Carissa

Brownies from three units gathered for the weekend at Camp Capilano in beautiful North Vancouver to camp out ancient Greek style. After conducting a poll of all three units, the girls chose the theme Greek Mythology for their weekend.

The girls had a great time making new friends and enjoying the wonderful camp facilities. As part of their afternoon Olympics, the girls spent time Poseidon adventuring in the heated outdoor pool.

SAM_2884 They also learned how to use camp stoves as part of their camping badges. They worked together to make some fruit of the gods jam to bring home to their moms for mother’s day.

Other Olympic games included shot put, discus, and cupid’s arrow.

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It wouldn’t have been Brownie camp without a campfire including all their favourite songs, and roasting marshmallows for s’mores.

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And the girls danced the night away at their toga party wearing the awesome toga nighties they made earlier in the day.

It was a wildly successful camp. Thank you to the leaders from the 24th Brownies, the 54th Brownies, and the Highlands Brownies for working together to pull this off. Also, a thank you to the couple of Guides who came along to act as patrol leaders, showing great leadership and fun attitudes.

Pixar in Concert with the VSO

Posted on May 1, 2014 by Carissa

Girls from the 54th Brownies and the Highlands Guiding unit got together for an outing to the Orpheum theatre in Vancouver to attend the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra’s performance of Pixar in Concert.

The show featured music from all 14 Pixar films performed live by the orchestra while images from the films were projected on a screen above. The concert really illustrated how powerful the music is, and how it is used to set mood, character, and place in some of our favourite movies. At times funny, sad, and scary, the music and images worked well together — well enough that the sold out audience was held in rapt attention through the whole performance. pixar

The Guiders would like to acknowledge that the girls were exceptionally well behaved, proving yet again that there is nothing our girls can’t do. For many of the girls, this was their first time seeing a live orchestra performance and we’re thrilled by how much they enjoyed it. We were all impressed by the talent of the musicians and the splendor of the Orpheum. It was a night that none of us are likely to forget soon.

Turtles Visit Brownies

Posted on April 7, 2014 by Carissa

A recent regular meeting of the 54th Brownies was made even more exciting than normal with a visit by a guest speaker from an organization called Species at Risk.

The speaker came in to discuss identification of local species and distinctions between native and invasive species, threats to survival, habitat needs and the actions being done to help. She also brought in “ambassador animals” — two juvenile painted tutles named Bert and Ernie that the girls got to handle.

This presenation worked towards the unit’s program activities about the living world, particularly their “Saving our Plants and Animals” badge. Thank you to Andrea (and Bert and Ernie!) for such an informative presentation. The girls learned a lot.

Shadbolt Seasonal Festival

Posted on December 17, 2013 by Carissa

Girls from the 1st Sparks, 24th Brownies, and 54th Brownies all came out to a community event at the Shadbolt Centre for the Arts. The Seasonal Celebration featured crafts, snacks, music and more from various cultures showing how they celebrate in the winter time.

Girls got to meet particularly animated characters like the Gingerbread Man as they wandered through the different activities.

Girls got into the spirit of the season and had a great time making crafts with their friends.

This great family event was a huge success. Thank you Shadbolt Centre and the City of Burnaby for putting it on!

University Highlands Guiding Group

Posted on November 1, 2013 by Carissa

Great news! Burnaby Mountain District is opening a brand new unit to service the SFU community at University Highlands Elementary. They’re off to a bit of a late start because we only recently found leaders for the group and there was a lot of set up procedures to go through, but now we’re ready to go. University Highlands Guiding Group is now available on UnitFinder so people in that neighborhood should be able to enter their postal code and register online for the group.

University Highlands Guiding Group is going to be a new adventure for Burnaby Mountain District — this mixed-branch, or “blended” Guiding Unit will accept both Brownies and Guides. The two branches will do most of their activities together, but still accomplish their own branch-specific programming.

(Click poster above to see more clearly)

The district will be hosting an information session for interested families next Tuesday at the school, and regular meetings will start a couple of weeks after. We look forward to getting involved in the SFU and UniverCity communities and welcoming the fantastic girls of University Highlands!

International Day of the Girl

Posted on October 29, 2013 by Carissa

Did you know that October 11th was declared by the United Nations the International Day of the Girl? The girls of the 24th Brownies commemorated this event by participating in Girl Guides’ International Day of the Girl Postcard project. To read more about the day and this project, click here.

Below is a gallery of the girls’ postcards explaining why the world needs girls. Way to go, Brownies!

(If you click on one of the pictures you can open it bigger and scroll through the gallery to better see the postcards)

Brownie Luau Sleepover

Posted on October 3, 2013 by Carissa

To get the year off to an awesome start, the 54th Brownies had a sleepover in September. It was themed like a Hawaiian luau!

Junior leaders at the entrance to the Luau

Heritage home Richmond Guide House was decorated to become to newest Hawaiian island. Girls were greeted by leaders with leis and went on to make their own floral hair pieces. After a pizza dinner (you guessed it, Hawaiian flavour!) the girls made their own coconut bras and donned grassed skirts.

Spicy Owl is helping a Brownie with her costume

Once they were all outfitted, it was time to dance! Hula style, of course.

Before long they were expert hula dancers

The night time snack was pineapple ice — a delicious treat made by freezing pineapple juice and grinding it through a snow cone maker.

Yum! Very refreshing.

A big thank you to all the leaders and Rangers who made this event possible. The girls had a great time!

Burnaby Mountain District

Register today at www.girlguides.ca!

Category Archives: Brownies