Tag Archives: Family

Year-End Family Picnic

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At Burnaby Mountain District we believe that part of our job as an organization within the community is to provide opportunities for the families of all of our girls to gather for fun, informal, social events. This is why we love putting on events like this year’s advancement and family picnic!

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The event began with a simple advancement ceremony where girls symbolically crossed footbridges to signify crossing over to the next branch in Guiding. This leaving ceremony complimented whatever celebrations different units had to give girls their end of year badges, awards, and recognition.

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The main part of the event was a family picnic including barbecued hotdogs and other snacks plus a variety of games and activities for the kids. Check out one Brownie, below, showing off her cool temporary tattoo, and some other members catching a watermelon break at the craft station:

Activities like these are really exciting because it gives the girls a chance to play and interact with girls from other units. Older girls and younger girls have a good time together, plus siblings get to get in on the fun as well!

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We really appreciate all the families who chose to spend the day with us to celebrate the close of the Guiding year. Although summer has just started, we can hardly wait to get back at it in the fall.

Welcome to Canada

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As we embark on a Canada Day long weekend celebrating Canada’s 150th birthday, it seems like a good time to post about Burnaby Mountain District’s Thinking Day event from this year — although this happened back in February, it is just as relevant today.

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Back in 2016 at our district camp, girls from all units in Burnaby Mountain District worked on Welcome to Canada cards which were donated to ISS of BC to help welcome immigrants and refugees new to Canada. When we delivered these cards, our Guiders were so impressed by the work of this organization that we wanted to do more to help welcome these newcomers.

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This is what inspired our Thinking Day 2017 Welcome to Canada luncheon. Working with ISS of BC, we invited six families with children aged 4-17 to join us for our Thinking Day celebration. Girls and their families from all of our units came out to this event, demonstrating how kind, friendly, and welcoming our community is.

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We began with a colour party and the singing of O Canada. We served a tasty lunch to everybody. Nothing builds camaraderie in a community quite like sharing food together, after all. Following the meal, girls gave presentations that they had worked on in their units which included sharing songs, dance, and artwork. At the end of the presentations, the entire district encouraged all the special guests to participate in a sing-a-long campfire. Specially chosen songs with big actions and repeat-after-me lyrics were chosen so that even those unfamiliar with our songs or language could still enjoy.

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In the closing remarks a representative from ISS of BC helped us hand out welcome gifts to the families. These were composed on donations from our girls and families of gift cards, transit tickets, and new gifts like Canucks scarves, toys, and treats — and of course, the gift bags also had Girl Guide Cookies! We were also able to donate a large basket of gently used toys, books, and games for ISS of BC to bring back to their welcome centre to use in their daycare facilities.

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This project felt more important than ever this year with the socio-political context in some parts of the world being less than welcoming to immigrants and refugees. Many parents commented on how valuable it is to have Girl Guides provide the opportunity for their girls to get involved and take action to welcome newcomers like this, to demonstrate their compassion and the warmth of our communities, and to get them engaged even at a very young age in conversations about why this is so important.

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The special guests all seemed to have a good time as well. They appreciated the warm welcome and their children had a great time singing the songs and then afterwards playing outside on the playground with our girls. Some of the families even made inquiries about how to join Girl Guides. Over all, it was a Thinking Day that we’re not likely to ever forget.

Happy Canada Day from Burnaby Mountain District!

Spaghetti a la Advancement

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At the end of the Guiding year, the girls of the 49th Guides, plus their leaders and their families, went for a year end lunch at the Old Spaghetti Factory in Gastown. It was a lot of fun for the girls to have a meal together out at a nice restaurant.

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For three of the girls, this was their last event as Guides so they received their advancement pins. On to Pathfinders for those girls!

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Two of them also received their Lady Baden Powell Award, which is the highest award available to a Guide aged girl and is given in recognition of completing the entire Guide program — way to go, girls!

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While it may not have been the most traditional advancement ceremony in the history of Guiding, Girl Guides is all about making memories and sharing special times with our friends. For this small unit, this pasta meal advancement ceremony is likely to stick in their minds as a great way to have recognized their accomplishments in Guides.

District Advancement & Family Picnic

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To wrap up the Guiding year at a district level, Burnaby Mountain hosted a family picnic at Warner Loat Park to celebrate our girls and their families. The event was well-attended and it seemed like a good time was had by all.

The event started with an Advancement ceremony where each branch’s advancing girls were welcomed by the next branch as they symbolically crossed a foot bridge. The group got bigger and bigger as the group of advancing girls amassed, and eventually all of the girl members crossed together into the next Guiding year.

girlguides2ummer1 007Picnic activities included face painting, balloon animals, and button making, as well as carnival style games like bean bag toss and egg on a spoon. There were also areas for bubble blowing and free play.

girlguides2ummer1 014There were big crowds and huge smiles. More than 150 hotdogs were served. Prizes were claimed by girls and siblings who completed most of the activities. It was a great treat to see so many girls and guiders and family members come together to celebrate the Guiding Year.

Big thank yous to the hard working Guiders who planned and put on such a great event. Thank you to the Pathfinder and Ranger girls who helped run the stations. And thank you also to West Coast Area Commissioner Donna came out as a special guest.