Tag Archives: Leadership

Introducing our new District Commissioner!

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Burnaby Mountain Girl Guides is very excited to announce that we have a new District Commissioner! Bethany Suvak has recently taken on the role of leading our District. We are very excited to have her leading our District for the next 3 years!

The role of being the District Commissioner is not new to Bethany, as she previously held the role from 2015-2018. Bethany has been in Guiding for 30 years and started as a Brownie. She had the chance to travel to Europe with Girl Guides in 2001, and can be seen in the photo above touching the Atlantic Ocean. She is currently a Spark Guider with our 1st Sparks Unit, where the Sparks call her Sparkles. Most of Bethany’s Guiding experience has been as a Spark Guider, but she has also worked with Embers and Rangers.

Bethany has been a trainer since 2013, and is passionate about supporting Guiders through training and mentorship. In 2018, she was a “Girls First Champion” and helped implement our new program.

Outside of Guiding, Bethany is a Mom to a three year old “future Spark” and teaches English at a local college.

We are very excited to have Bethany’s experience, passion, and knowledge in the District Commissioner role! This is a very important role in our District, as the Commissioner leads the District team, supports our Guiders, ensures Guiding is visible in our community, and does so much more! Bethany’s priority for this position is to strengthen bonds in Burnaby Mountain District. She wants to see more collaboration between members both at the unit and district level. She also wants to support our Guiders as much as possible, and part of this is an emphasis on recruiting more adult volunteers. She looks forward to welcoming more members onto our team very soon and can’t wait to start planning some of the events and activities that she has in mind!

We also wanted to thank Sandra Berry, who is our outgoing District Commissioner. Sandra took on the role during the COVID-19 pandemic and helped keep Guiding strong in our District throughout. Thank you so much, Sandra, for all of your service to Guiding and Burnaby Mountain District over the last 3 years!

Congratulations, Bethany, and thank you, Sandra!

Bridging Activities!

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Recently, Burnaby Mountain’s 1st Sparks Unit connected with our 14th Pathfinders to do a fun Unit building activity together, and to earn their “How To” badges! The Sparks each received their own building kits and made their own penguin goalie game, where you flick a ball and a little Foosball style penguin tries to kick it.

The Pathfinders were a huge help with the big project! They helped the Sparks put together their games, and the Sparks were so proud of the finished projects. The Sparks couldn’t have done it without the help from the Pathfinders, so the Sparks and Spark leaders were very grateful that they came!

Bridging is a fun opportunity for Girl Guides of different age groups to come together and work on fun activities. It allows our older members to take on a leadership role, and the younger members to see what Girl Guides is like when they get older!

Everyone was so excited about the finished project!!

Spark-Pathfinder Buddy Sleepover

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Burnaby Mountain District’s two smallest units, the 2nd Sparks and 10th Pathfinders, recently teamed up for a fun Guiding sleepover at Richmond Guide House. The Pathfinders got to work on their event planning and leadership skills by doing all the preparations and leading the event for the younger girls.

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The Pathfinders decided on an “Under the Sea” theme which involved eating seashell pasta with blue Hawaiian punch for supper, making a cool underwater craft, and watching a Little Mermaid movie together.

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The Sparks loved having the older girls around and doing activities with them. The craft was a really big hit — an under the sea tambourine that looks like a ship’s porthole!

All the Guiders were impressed by the Pathfinder’s dedication and helpfulness. When the leaders tried to jump in and help, the Pathfinders assured them that they were happy to take care of it. It left the Guiders lots of time to relax, hang out with the girls, and take advantage of the cozy comforts of the Richmond Guide House property. Guiders spent some downtime doing this cool retro GGC puzzle that they found on one of the shelves — it had all its pieces!

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The buddy sleepover worked really well. It was a great way for Pathfinders to take the lead and a wonderful way for Sparks to be with some dedicated role models. It was a great sleepover — THANK YOU, PATHFINDERS!

Gold Camp at Manning Park

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Last week Burnaby Mountain’s 14th Pathfinders had their year end camp at Manning Park. Gold Camp is the grand finale of Pathfinder program and allows third year girls to take on tremendous leadership in planning their own camping adventure.

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It’s great to see the Pathfinders continuing their programming even into July, after many groups have stopped for the year. Guider Marie is never one to let good camping opportunities slip away and nothing is better on a beautiful summer weekend than camping with your Guiding friends in a great BC park.

This Gold Camp was planned by three third year girls who each was responsible for her own site of two or three younger girls (Guides and Pathfinders) and got to host leaders at mealtimes.

It gives the girls a great chance to experience the work that goes into planning the meals, activities, and safety considerations involved in executing an awesome camp in Girl Guides. It’s a lot of responsibility to be in charge of what’s happening, especially when you have younger and less experienced campers in your care.

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The site was Coldspring Campground at EC Manning Provincial Park. It is a beautiful spot with lots of great nature and wildlife to enjoy. It was fun seeing the many marmots popping up to say hello!

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A particular highlight of the trip was spending a couple of hours canoeing and kayaking on Lightning Lake. It was a beautiful day to be out on the water.

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Other activities included field games like capture the flag, and a “campfire” that was hardly hampered by the campfire ban — the girls still sang their favourite songs and even roasted s’mores using their propane camp stoves.

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For the Guides who were invited as guests to this camp, it was a great chance to see what kinds of fun await in Pathfinders. Guiding is all about celebrating both old and new friendships.

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Well done, third years, for hosting such an awesome Gold Camp! Completing the Pathfinder program is a lot of work, but in the meantime you’ve all gained excellent skills, not to mention the fun, friendship, and memories!

Sparks Celebrate Canada 150

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Last night the girls in the 1st Burnaby Mountain Sparks had a great time celebrating Canada in honour of our country’s 150th birthday this year.

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The meeting started with a great discussion about the flag and the singing of the national anthem. Then the group discussed different things they knew about Canada and asked some interesting questions.

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Everyone’s favourite part of the meeting was playing a fun game of “pin the tail on the beaver” — it was so fun they wanted to play again and again! One interesting thing about this meeting was that it was entirely planned by the unit’s Junior Leader, a Ranger who has been working with the unit for the past three years. The Guiders were happy to see how much she has learned about running a unit meeting and working with the girls. It was a great way for this Ranger to work on her leadership skills in a safe, supportive environment.

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The meeting ended with a couple more activities including a flag craft and some goal setting for the future. They sang a traditional Canadian song together before saying goodbye for the night. As an added bonus, this meeting allowed the girls to complete the Canada 150 Challenge, which meant everyone went home with a cool crest. Yay Canada!

Introducing the new DC team

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Burnaby Mountain District is pleased to be welcoming a new District Commissioner team.

For the last four years, Burnaby Mountain has had a wonderful Commissioner, Gerry. During her term, Burnaby Mountain’s membership numbers have increased substantially, and new units have opened allowing us to serve more girls in our community. Gerry also was at the helm of a variety of district events, with highlights such as Science Day at SFU in the 2013/2014 Guiding year and the super successful Space Centre Sleepover in 2014/2015. These kinds of all-ages, large scale events with clear educational benefits are typical of Gerry’s conviction for having “fun with a purpose” in Guiding. These are traditions that the district will hopefully continue.

Gerry, out-going DC

Gerry, out-going DC, happily barbecuing for her district’s Guiders

Starting today, Gerry’s term has concluded and taking over for her as District Commissioner is Bethany. In addition, the district now also has the benefit of a Deputy District Commissioner who will help support Bethany with the DC duties. Bethany is thrilled to have Saffina taking on the Deputy DC role.

The new DC team! Deputy District Commissioner Saffina (right) and District Commissioner Bethany (left)

The new DC team! Deputy District Commissioner Saffina (left) and District Commissioner Bethany (right)

Bethany and Saffina both have several years of Guiding experience. They have been active guiders in the district for a long time and both have experience with international Guiding.

Sometimes, parents and girls don’t have a very clear idea of what the District Commissioner does. The DC leads the district council. This includes a variety of important duties including (but not limited to):

  • Communicating information from the Area, Provincial, and National levels of Girl Guides of Canada to our unit’s Guiders
  • Ensuring that safety, legal, financial, and administrative procedures are being followed in all units
  • Interviewing and orienting new leaders
  • Facilitating communication throughout the district including team building, workload sharing, and if necessary, conflict management
  • Coordinating the district’s biannual Girl Guide Cookie campaigns
  • Planning, or overseeing the planning, of large-scale district events

It is a big job, and Bethany and Saffina anticipate that Gerry will continue to mentor them for the next few months as they get accustomed to their roles.

Thank you, Gerry, and welcome to Bethany and Saffina!