Brownie Sleepover at Fort Langley

At the start of May, a multi-unit sleepover saw the 27th, 54th and 24th Brownies get together for a heritage-themed sleepover at Fort Langley.

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Once everyone was settled into their oTENTik (a Parks Canada A-Frame/Platform tent structure), they had an interpreter lead them in a “campfire program”, for which they actually spent very little time at the campfire!

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He took the girls into a few of the exhibit buildings and taught them about the voyageur lifestyle. The Brownies lugged “fur bales” around and got to check out the brand new play area which wasn’t yet open to the public.

Once the interpreter left, the Brownies had the place to themselves. Securely locked within the walls of the Fort, the girls roasted hot dogs and sang a few favourite camp songs around the fire, rolled down the grassy incline, climbed the watchtowers, panned for gold, ran around and tried to find bunnies, and made yarn dolls.

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In the morning, after packing up and eating breakfast, the Brownies did a nature scavenger hunt before the fort opened to the public. They took advantage of the Girl Guides heritage tour they have designed, which provides workbooks for the girls, activity guidelines, puppets and scripts for the Guiders, all of which earned them a special Fort Langley crest.

Brownie Flag Meeting

Sometimes it is fun to catch up with one of our units during a “normal” meeting — that is, something that isn’t a special event like an outing, sleepover, or camp. At our regular weekly meetings, girls participate in all kinds of fun, hands-on programming. Recently, the 54th Burnaby Mountain Brownies had a meeting about flags and heritage. Jenn, one of the group’s leaders, describes the meeting below. 

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Tonight we worked on our Key to My Community which involved a flag ceremony and learning about Canada! Our circle leaders got to be in charge of the flags. We learned how to hold a flag, we learned they never touch the ground and we learned how to carefully roll our flags back up for storage. They loved seeing them (and do did I! We have a district flag? COOL) and learning about them all.


The last photo shows the girls together around their “where do we come from” map. The stones are decorated like a flag, some say “I love Canada”. They are all unique and each Brownie has marked where her family comes from to the best of her knowledge. (Note how many chose Canada)

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We also played a little basketball free throw tonight and learned a bit about the Canadian guy who invented it! Before we played, we had a lacrosse stick and a hockey stick and asked which one is our national sport? They all chose Hockey! Which is actually just the sport we are the best at, not our national sport. It was a good meeting and I know we sent home some tired Brownies tonight!

Thank you, Jenn, for sharing about your Brownie meeting. It sounds like the girls were really engaged and had a great time doing this GGC programming. 

Burnaby Village Museum Heritage Christmas Outing

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.

1 Sparks Bby Village 3There 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”.

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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.1 Sparks Bby Village 11

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!54 Brownies Bby Village 4

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.